ADMISSION   OF    CALIFORNIA. 


SPEECH 


HON,  R,  C,  WINTHROP,  OF  MASS, 


THE  PRESIDENT'S  MESSAGE, 


TRANSMITTING 


THE  CONSTITUTION  OF  CALIFORNIA: 


DELIVERED  IN  COMMITTEE  OF  THE  WHOLE  IN  THE  HOUSE  OF  REPRESEN. 
0TATIVES  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES,  MAY  8,  1850. 


WASHINGTON: 

GIDEON    &    CO.,    PRINTERS 

1850. 


ibrar* 

SPEECH. 


The  House  being  in  Committee  of  the  Whole  on  the  state  of  the  Union, 
on  the  President's  Message  transmitting  the  Constitution  of  California: 

Mr.  WINTHROP  said:  When  I  had  the  honor  of  addressing  the  Com 
mittee  of  the  Whole  on  the  state  of  the  Union  some  weeks  ago,  I  intimated 
my  purpose  to  take  another  opportunity,  at  no  distant  day,  to  express,  some 
what  more  in  detail  than  I  was  able  to  do  on  that  occasion,  the  views  which 
I  entertain  in  regard  to  what  have  well  been  called  the  great  questions  of 
the  day. 

The  eager  competitions  for  the  floor  which  have  been  witnessed  here  al 
most  without  intermission  from  that  time  to  this,  have  postponed  the  accom 
plishment  of  this  purpose  much  longer  than  I  could  have  desired. 

I  rise  now,  however,  at  last,  to  fulfil  it.  And  most  heartily  do  I  wish. 
Mr.  Chairman,  that  in  doing  so,  I  could  see  my  way  clear  to  contribute 
something  to  the  repose  of  the  country,  and  to  the  harmony  of  our  national 
councils.  I  yield  to  no  one  in  the  sincerity  or  the  earnestness  of  my  de 
sire,  that  every  bone  of  contention  between  different  portions  of  the  Union 
may  be  broken,  every  root  of  bitterness  removed,  and  that  the  American 
Congress  may  be  seen  again  in  a  condition  to  discharge  its  legitimate 
functions  of  providing  at  once  for  the  wants  of  the  Government  and  for  the 
interests  of  the  people.  If  there  be  an  example  in  history,  which  I  would 
gladly  emulate  at  such  a  moment  as  this,  it  is  that  of  aw  old  Swiss  patriot, 
four  hundred  years  ago — of  whom  I  have  recently  read  an  account — who, 
when  the  Confederated  Cantons  had  become  so  embittered  against,  eacii  other, 
by  a  long  succession  of  mutual  criminations  and  local  feuds,  that  the  disso 
lution  of  the  Confederacy  was  openly  proposed  and  discussed,  and  the  liber 
ties  of  Switzerland  seemed  on  the  very  verge  of  ruin ,  was  suddenly  found  rush 
ing  from  his  cherished  retirement  into  the  Assembly  of  Deputies,  and  ex 
claiming  Ci  Concord,  concord,  CONCORD  !"  and  who,  it  is  recorded,  by  his 
prudence,  his  patriotism,  and  his  eloquence,  brought  back  that  Assembly, 
and  the  people  whom  they  represented,  to  a  sense  of  the  inestimable  bless 
ings  which  were  nt  stake  upon  the  issue,  and  finally  succeeded  in  restoring 
his  distracted  country  to  a  condition  of  harmony,  tranquillity,  and  assured 
Union  ! 

Sir,  there  is  no  sacrifice  of  personal  opinion,  of  pride  of  consistency,  of 
local  regard,  of  official  position,  of  present  havings,  or  of  future  hopes, 
which  I  would  not  willingly  make  to  play  such  a  part  as  this. 

Perhaps  it  may  be  said,  that  it  has  been  played  already.  Perhaps  it  may 
be  said,  that  a  voice,  or  voices,  have  already  been  heard  in  the  other  end 
of  this  Capitol ,  if  not  in  this,  which  have  stilled  the  angry  storm  of  fraternal 
discord,  and  given  us  the  grateful  assurance  that  all  our  controversies  shall 
be  peacefully  settled. 

At  any  rate,  sir,  whether  this  be  so  or  not,  I  am  but  too  sensible  that  it  is 
not  given  to  me  in  this  hour  to  attempt  such  a  character.  And  let  me  add, 
that  there  is  one  sacrifice  which  I  could  never  make,  even  for  all  the  glory 
which  might  result  from  the  successful  performance  of  so  exalted  a  service. 
I  mean ,  the  sacrifice  of  rny  own  deliberately  adopted  and  honestly  cherished 
principles.  These  I  must  avow,  to-day  and  always.  These  I  must  stand 


to,  here  and  everywhere.  Under  all  circumstances,  in  all  events,  I  must 
follow  the  lead  of  my  own  conscientious  convictions  of  right  and  of  duly. 

I  assume  then,  to-day,  Mr.  Chairman,  no  character  of  a  pacificator.  I 
have  no  new  plan  of  adjustment  or  reconciliation  to  oiler  for  the  difficulties 
and  dissensions  in  which  we  arc  unhappily  involved. 

Still  less,  sir,  have  I  sought,  the  iloor  for  the  purpose  of  entering  into  fresh 
controversy  with  any  body  in  this  House  or  elsewhere.  Not  even  the  gra 
tuitous  imputations,  the  second-hand  perversions  and  stale  sarcasms,  of  the 
honorable  member  from  Connecticut,  [Mr.  CLEVELAND,]  a  few  days  ago, 
can  tempt  me  to  employ  another  hour  of  this  session  in  the  mere  cut  and 
thrust  of  personal  encounter.  I  pass  from  that  honorable  member  with  the 
single  remark,  that  it  required  more  than  all  his  vehement  and  turgid  de 
clamation  against  others,  who,  as  he  suggested,  were  shaping  their  course 
with  a  view  to  some  official  promotion  or  reward,  to  make  me,  or,  as  I  think, 
to  make  this  House,  forget,  that  the  term  of  one  of  his  own  Connecticut 
Senators  was  soon  about  to  expire,  that  the  Connecticut  Legislature  was  just 
about  to  assemble,  and  that  the  honorable  member  himself  was  well  under 
stood  to  be  a  prominent  candidate  for  the  vacancy  ! 

And  I  shall  be  equally  brief  with  the  distinguished  member  from  Penn 
sylvania.  [Mr.  WILMOT,]  who  honored  me  with  another  shaft  fiom  the  self 
same  quiver  on  Friday  last.  I  will  certainly  not  take  advantage  of  his  ab 
sence  to  deal  with  him  at  any  length.  But  t  cannot  forbear  saying,  that 
as  I  heard  him  pouring  forth  so  bitter  an  invective,  so  pitiless  a  philippic, 
against  Southern  arrogance  and  Northern  recreancy,  and  as  I  observed  the 
sleek  complacency  with  which  he  seemed  to  congratulate  himself  that  he 
alone  had  been  proof  against  all  the  seductions  of  patronage,  and  all  the 
blandishments  of  power,  I  could  not  help  remembering  that  his  name  was 
an  historical  name  more  than  a  century  ago,  and  the  lines  in  which  a  cele 
brated  poet  had  embalmed  it  for  immortality,  came  unbidden  to  my  lips: 

"  Shall  parts  so  various  aim  at  nothing  new  ! 
«  He'll  shine  a  Tully  and  a  Wilmot  too !" 

My  object  to-day,  Mr.  Chairman,  is  the  simple  and  humble  one  of  ex 
pressing  my  own  views  on  matters  in  regard  lo  which  I  have,  in  some  quar 
ters,  been,  either  intentionally  or  unintentionally,  misunderstood,  and  mis 
represented.  The  end  of  rny  hour  will  find  me,  I  fear,  with  even  this 
work  but  half  accomplished;  and  I  must  rely  on  being  judged  by  what  shall 
be  printed  hereafter,  rather  than  by  what  I  may  succeed  in  saying  now.  I 
will  not,  however,  make  my  little  less,  by  wasting  any  more  of  my  time  in 
an  empty  exordium,  but  will  proceed  at  once  to  tha  business  in  hand. 

And,  in  the  first  place,  sir,  I  desire  lo  explain,  at  the  expense  of  some 
historical  narrative  and  egotistical  reference,  the  position  which  I  have  here 
tofore  occupied  in  relation  to  a  certain  anti- slavery  proviso,  which  has  been 
the  immediate  occasion  of  most  of  those  sectional  dissensions  by  which  our 
domestic  peace  has  been  of  late  so  seriously  disturbed. 

I  need  not  say,  sir,  that  I  am  no  stranger  to  thatjorowwo,  though,  during 
the  whole  of  the  last  Congress,  1  was  precluded,  by  my  position  in  the  chair 
of  the  House,  from  giving  any  vote,  or  uttering  any  voice,  in  regard  to  it. 

There  are  those  here  to-day,  and  I  might  single  out,  in  no  spirit  of  un- 
kindness  certainly ,  the  present  chairman  of  the  Committee  of  Ways  and 
Means  [Mr.  BAYLY]  as  one  of  them,  who  have  often  taken  pains  to  remind 
the  House  and  the  country,  that  this  proviso  was  formally  proposed  by  me 


to  a  bill  for  establishing  a  government  in  the  Oregon  territory,  before  the 
•honorable  member  from  Pennsylvania,  whose  name  it  now  bears,  (Mr. 
WILMOT,]  had  entered  upon  his  Congressional  career. 

I  have  never  denied  this  allegation.  I  have  never  desired  to  deny  it. 
The  fact  is  upon  record;  and  I  would  not  erase  or  alter  that  record  if  it 
were  in  my  power  to  do  so.  But,  sir,  I  have  often  desired,  and  always 
intended,  whenever  I  should  again  be  free  to  take  part  in  the  discussions  of 
this  body,  to  recall  to  (he  remembrance  of  the  House  and  of  the  country, 
the  circumstances  under  which,  and  the  views  with  which,  that  proposi 
tion  was  made. 

It  was  made,  Mr.  Chairman,  on  the  1st  day  of  February,  1845.  And 
what  was  the  condiiion  of  the  country,  and  of  the  public  affairs  of  the  coun 
try,  on  that  day? 

Oregon  was  then  a  disputed  territory.  We  were  engaged  at  that  time,  sir, 
in  negotiations  with  Great  Britain,  in  respect  to  the  conflicting  claims  of  the 
two  countries  to  that  remote  region.  Those  negotiations  had  been  long  pro 
tracted,  and  had  engendered  a  spirit  of  restless  impatience  on  the  subject, 
in  the  minds  of  a  great  portion  of  the  American  people.  The  question, 
too,  had  been  drawn — as,  I  regret  to  say,  almost  every  question  in  tins 
country  seems  destined  to  be  drawn — into  the  perilous  vortex  of  party  poli 
tics;  and  a  Democratic  Presidential  triumph  had  just  been  achieved ,  un 
der  a  banner  on  which  were  legibly  inscribed  the  well-remembered  figures 
-54°  40',  and  the  well-remembered  phrase,  "  the  whole  or  none." 

Under  these  circumstances,  sir,  a  bill  was  introduced  into  this  House,  to 
extend  the  jurisdiction  of  the  United  States  over  the  whole  territory  in  dis 
pute,  and  to  authorize  the  assumption  and  exercise  of  one  of  the  highest  at 
tributes  of  exclusive  sovereignty,  by  granting  lands  to  settlers. 

The  bill  was  in  other  respects  highly  objectionable.  It  provided  for  car 
rying  on  a  government  by  the  appointment  of  only  two  officers — a  governor 
and  a  judge — who  were  to  have  absolute  authority  to  promulgate  and  en 
force,  throughout  the  territory  of  Oregon,  any  and  all  laws  which  they  might 
see  fit  to  select  from  the  statutes  of  any  State  or  Territory  in  the  Union. 
The  whole  destinies  of  Oregon  were  thus  to  be  confided  to  the  discretion 
of  two  men,  who  were  to  make  up  a  code  of  laws  to  suit  themselves,  by 
picking  and  culling  at  pleasure  from  all  the  statute  books  of  the  country. 
They  were  at  liberty,  as  the  bill  stood — although  the  entire  Territory  was 
above  the  latitude  of  36°  30' — to  adopt  a  slave  code  or  a  free  code, as  might 
be  most  agreeable  to  their  own  notions;  and  there  was,  at  that  very  mo 
ment,  lying  upon  the  tables  before  us,  a  report  from  the  Indian  agent  or 
sub-agent  in  that  quarter,  from  which  it  appeared,  that  a  number  of  the 
native  Indians  had  already  been  captured  and  enslaved  by  the  white  settlers, 
and  that  they  were  held  in  a  state  of  absolute  and  unjustifiable  bondage. 

It  was  under  these  circumstances,  Mr.  Chairman,  that  I  moved  the  pro 
viso  in  question;  and  I  now  read,  from  a  speech  printed  at  the  time,  the 
remarks  which  I  made  on  the  occasion: 

"One  limitation  upon  the  discretion  of  these  two  irresponsible  law-givers  ought  certainly  to  be 
imposed,  if  this  bill  is  to  pass.  As  it  now  stands,  there  is  nothing  to  prevent  them  from  legal 
izing  the  existence  of  domestic  slavery  in  Oregon.  It  seems  to  be  understood,  that  this  institu 
tion  is  to  be  limited  by  the  terms  of  the  Missouri  compromise,  and  is  nowhere  to  be  permitted  in 
the  American  Union  above  the  latitude  of  36°  30'.  There  is  nothing,  however,  to  enforce  this 
understanding  in  the  present  case.  The  published  documents  prove  that  Indian  slavery  already 
exists  in  Oregon.  I  intend,  therefore,  to  move,  whenever  it  is  in  order  to  do  so,  the  insertion  of 


an  express  declaration,  that '  there  shall  neither  be  slavery  nor  involuntary  servitude  in  this  Territory,, 
except  for  crime,  whereof  the  party  shatl  have  been  duly  convicted. '  " 

I  did  not  stop  here,  however,  sir.  The  whole  argument  of  my  speech  on 
that  occasion,  with  the  exception  of  the  single  sentence  which  I  have  cited,, 
was  against  the  passage  of  the  bill  in  any  form. 

"  I  am  in  hopes,  Mr.  Chairman,  (such  was  my  distinct  avowal,)  that  the  bill  will  not  become 
a  law  at  the  present  session  in  any  shape.  Everything  conspires,  in  my  judgment,  to  call  for 
the  postponement  of  any  such  measure  to  a  future  day"." 

The  great  and  paramount  objection  to  the  bill,  in  my  mind,  was  that  it 
would  jeopard  the  peace  of  the  country;  that  it  would  break  up  the  amica 
ble  negotiations  in  which  we  were  engaged,  and  would  leave  no  other  alter 
native  for  settling  the  vexed  question  of  title  between  us  and  Great  Britain, 
but  the  stern  arbitrement  of  war. 

Entertaining  this  opinion,  I  aimed  at  defeating  the  measure  by  every 
means  in  my  power;  and  it  was  well  understood,  at  the  time,  that  this  very 
proviso  was  one  of  the  means  upon  which  I  mainly  relied  for  the  purpose. 
I  deliberately  designed,  by  moving  it,  to  unite  the  southern  Democracy  with 
the  conservative  Whigs  of  both  tl^e  North  and  the  South,  in  opposition  to 
the  bill,  and  thus  to  insure  its  defeat. 

The  motion  prevailed.  The  proviso  was  inserted  by  a  vote  of  131  to  69. 
And  I.  for  one,  then  carried  out  my  opposition  to  the  bill  by  voting  against 
it,  proviso  and  all.  The  southern  Democracy,  however,  did  not  go  with 
me  on  this  vote.  Not  a  few  of  them — the  present  Speaker  of  the  House 
among  the  number — all  of  them,  indeed,  who  were  present,  except  four, 
voted  in  favor  of  the  bill,  notwithstanding  the  anti-slavery  clause;  and  ac 
cordingly  it  passed  the  House.  But  there  can  be  little  doubt  that  this  clause 
had  its  influence  in  arresting  the  bill  in  the  other  wing  of  the  Capitol,  where 
it  remained  unacted  upon  until  the  close  of  the  session,  and  was  thus  final 
ly  lost. 

Sir,  a  bill  to  create  a  territorial  government  in  Oregon,  containing  this 
identical  proviso,  has  since  been  passed  through  both  Houses  of  Congress, 
and  has  received  the  sanction  and  signature  of  a  southern  Democratic  Presi 
dent;  and  I  do  not  suppose,  therefore,  that  this  original  motion  of  mine  will 
be  hereafter  so  frequent  a  subject  of  southern  Democratic  censure  as  it  hith 
erto  has  been.  But  I  have  desired  to  place  upon  record,  in  pcrpetvam  me- 
moriain  rei,  this  plain,  unvarnished  history  of  the  case;  and  having  done 
so,  1  willingly  submit  myself  to  whatever  measure  of  censure  or  reproach 
such  a  state  of  facts  may  fairly  subject  me  to,  either  from  the  South  or  from 
the  North.  If  the  offering  of  this  proviso  to  this  bill,  under  these  circum 
stances,  with  these  views,  and  with  this  result,  be  the  unpardonable  offence 
which  it  has  sometimes  been  styled,  I  can  only  say  "adsum,  qui  fed;  in 
me  conveitite  ferrum!"  Nay.  sir,  I  will  say  further,  that  if  it  be  fairly 
traceable  to  this  movement  of  mine,  that  it  is  no  longer  an  open  question 
whether  domestic  slavery  shall  find  a  foothold  in  the  Territory  of  Oregon,  I 
shall  feel  that  it  has  not  been  entirely  in  vain  that  I  have  been  for  ten  years 
associated  with  the  public  councils  of  my  country. 

1  come  next,  Mr.  Chairman,  to  the  proviso,  which  has  more  legitimately 
received  the  name  of  the  honorable  member  from  Pennsylvania,  (Mr.  WIL- 
MOT.)  And  it  is  not  less  important  in  this  case,  than  in  the  other,  to  recall 
to  the  remembrance  of  the  House  and  of  the  country  the  circumstances  un 
der  which  this  proviso,  also,  was  proposed. 


I  think,  sir,  that  no  one  who  was  a  member  of  Congress  at  the  time  will 
soon  forget  the  eighth  day  of  August,  1846.  The  country  was  at  war  with 
Mexico,  and  Congress  was  within  eight- and -forty  hours  of  the  appointed 
close  of  a  most  protracted  and  laborious  session.  We  were  already  almost 
exhausted  by  hot  weather  and  hot  work,  and  all  the  energies  which  were 
left  us  were  required  for  winding  up  the  great  mass  of  public  business  which 
always  awaits  the  closing  hours,  whether  of  a  longer  or  a  shorter  session. 
Under  these  circumstances,  a  message  was  received  by  this  House  from  Pre 
sident  Polk,  calling  for  an  appropriation  of  money  to  enable  him  to  negotiate 
a  treaty  of  peace,  and  intimating,  by  a  distinct  reference  to  the  precedent  of 
the  purchase  of  Louisiana,  that  he  designed  to  employ  this  money  in  the 
acquisition  of  more  territory. 

Such  a  message,  1  need  not  say,  sir,  took  all  who  were  not  in  the  Presi 
dent's  secrets  greatly  by  surprise.  The  idea  of  bringing  money  to  the  aid 
of  our  armies  for  the  purpose  of  buying  a  peace  from  a  nation  like  Mexico, 
could  not  fail  to  inflict  a  severe  wound  upon  our  national  pride;  while  the 
Just  of  teriitorial  acquisition  and  aggrandizement,  which  was  thus  plainly 
betrayed,  gave  a  deeper  dye  of  injustice  and  rapine  to  the  war  into  which 
we  had  been  so  recklessly  plunged. 

No  time  was  afforded  us,  however,  for  reflections  or  deliberations  of  any 
sort.  The  message  was  referred  at  once  to  the  Committee  of  the  Whole  on 
the  state  of  the  Union,  and  a  bill  was  forthwith  originated  in  that  commit 
tee,  under  the  lead  of  General  McKAY,  of  North  Carolina,  for  placing  two 
millions  of  dollars  at  the  unlimited  discretion  of  the  President. 

For  the  debate  upon  this  bill,  two  or  three  hours  of  a  hot  summer  after 
noon  were  grudgingly  allowed  by  the  Democratic  majority  in  this  House, 
and  these  two  or  three  hours  were  divided  off  into  homoeopathic  portions  of 
five  minutes  each.  My  honorable  friend  from  New  York,  (Mr.  HUGH 
WHITE,) — the  senior  member  of  the  New  York  delegation, and  who,  I  hope, 
will  long  remain  here  to  enjoy  the  dignity  of  that  position — obtained  the 
floor  for  the  first  five  minutes,  and  I  was  fortunate  or  unfortunate  enough  to 
follow  him.  No  amendment  to  the  bill  had  then  been  adopted,  and  no 
proviso  moved.  But  here  is  what  1  said  on  that  occasion,  as  reported  in  the 
National  Intelligencer  nt  the  time:  ^ 

"  Mr.  WINTHROP  said  that  he  should  follow  the  example  of  his  friend  from  New  York,  (Mr. 
WHITE,)  and  confine  himself  to  a  brief  statement  of  his  views,  reserving  to  himself  the  privilege 
of  amplifying  and  enforcing  them  hereafter.  The  Administration  and  its  friends  had  thought  fit 
during  the  present  session  tojrame  mere  than  one  of  their  most  important  measures,  so  as  to 
leave  their  opponents  in  a  false  position  whichever  way  they  voted.  There  were  two  thing? 
which  he  had  not  imagined,  in  advance,  that  any  circumstances  could  have  constrained  him  to 
do,  and  from  which  he  would  gladly  have  been  spared.  One  of  them  was  to  give  a  vote  which 
might  appear  to  lend  an  approving  sanction  to  a  war  which  had  been  caused  by  the  annexation 
of  Texas;  the  oiher  was  to  give  a  vote  which  might  appear  like  an  opposition  to  the  earliest 
restoration  of  peace,  either  with  Mexico  or  any  other  Power  on  earth.  But  he  must  let  appear 
ances  take  care  of  themselves.  He  was  not  here  to  pronounce  opinions  either  upon  the  preamble 
of  a  bill  or  the  phrases  of  a  President's  message,  lie  was  here  to  vote  on  substantial  provisions 
of  law,  proposed  with  a  view  to  their  practical  interpretation  and  execution.  One  of  these  votes 
he  had  given  already,  under  circumstances  which  were  familiar  to  the  House  and  to  the  country. 
He  believed  it  then,  and  he  believed  it  now,  upon  the  most  deliberate  reflection,  to  be  the  best 
vote  of  which  the  case  admitted.  And  now,  he  greatly  feared,  that  he  was  about  to  be  compelled 
to  give  the  other  of  these  abhorrent  votes.  He  could  not  and  would  not  vote  for  this  bill  as  it 
now  stood. 

"  What  was  the  bill •  A  bill  to  place  two  millions  of  dollars  at  the  disposal  of  the  President 
'  for  any  extraordinary  emergencies  which  might  arise  out  of  our  intercourse  with  foreign  na 
tions.'  Not  a  word  about  peace.  Not  a  word  about  Mexico.  Not  a  syllable  about  the  dis 
puted  boundaries  on  the  Rio  Grande.  It  was  a  vote  of  unlimited  confidence  in  an  Administra- 


8 

tion  in  which,  he  was  sorry  to  say,  there  was  very  little  confidence  to  be  placed.  They  might 
employ  this  money  towards  buying  California,  or  buying  Cuba,  or  buying  Yucatan,  or  buying 
the  Sandwich  Islands,  or  buying  any  other  territory  they  might  fancy  in  either  hemisphere.  If 
we  turned  to  the  message  of  the  President,  it  was  hardly  more  satisfactory.  Nothing  could  be 
more  evident  than  that  this  appropriation  was  asked  for  as  the  earnest  money  for  a  purchase  of 
more  territory.  The  message  expressly  stated  that  it  was  to  be  used  in  part  payment  for  any 
concessions  which  Mexico  might  make  to  us.  The  President  already  had  the  claims  of  our  citi 
zens  to  deal  with,  to  the  amount  of  three  millions  or  more.  Here  were  two  millions  more  to  be 
placed  in  his  hand,  in  cash.  What  was  to  be  the  whole  payment,  for  which  five  millions  of  dol 
lars  was  wanted  as  an  advance?  And  where  was  this  territory  to  be?  The  message,  as  if  not 
willing  to  leave  us  wholly  in  the  dark,  had  pointed  expressly  to  the  example  of  1803— to  the  pur 
chase  of  Louisiana — and  this  very  bill  (as  Mr.  W.  understood)  had  been  copied  verbatim  from  the 
act  by  which  that  purchase  was  indirectly  sanctioned.  The  President  has  thus  called  upon  us, 
in  language  not  to  be  misunderstood,  to  sanction,  in  advance,  a  new  and  indefinite  acquisition  of 
southern  territory.  To  such  an  acquisition  he  (Mr.  W.)  was  opposed.  He  had  said  heretofore, 
and  he  repeated  now,  that  he  was  uncompromisingly  opposed  to  extending  the  slaveholding  ter 
ritory  of  the  Union.  He  wanted  no  more  territory  of  any  sort;  but  of  this  we  had  more  than 
enough  already. 

"  He  cordially  responded  to  the  President's  desires  to  bring  about  a  just  and  honorable  peace 
at  the  earliest  moment.  Nothing  would  give  him  more  real  satisfaction  than  to  join  in  a  mea 
sure  honestly  proposed  for  that  purpose.  He  did  not  grudge  the  payment  of  the  two  millions. 
He  would  appropriate  twenty  millions  for  the  legitimate  purposes  of  a  treaty  of  peace  without 
a  moment's  hesitation.  And  he  still  hoped  that  this  measure  might  assume  a  shape  in  which 
he  could  give  it  his  support.  Limit  the  discretion  of  the  President  to  a  settlement  of  those 
boundaries  which  have  been  the  subject  of  dispute.  Hold  him  to  his  solemn  pledges,  twice  re 
peated,  that  he  would  be  ready  at  all  times  to  settle  the  existing  differences  between  die  two  coun 
tries  on  the  most  liberal  terms.  Give  him  no  countenance  in  his  design  to  take  advantage  of  the 
present  war  to  force  Mexico  into  the  surrender,  or  even  the  sale,  of  any  of  her  provinces.  If 
any  body  wants  a  better  harbor  on  the  Pacific,  let  him  wait  till  it  can  be  acquired  with  less  of 
national  dishonor.  But  whatever  you  do  or  omit,  give  us  at  least  to  be  assured  that  this  appro 
priation  is  not  to  be  applied  to  the  annexation  of  another  Texas,  or  even  to  the  purchase  of 
another  Louisiana."  [Here  the  hammer  fell.] 

This,  Mr.  Chairman,  was  my  five  minutes'  speech  on  that  memorable 
occasion.  It  was  "  brief  as  the  posy  of  a  lady's  ring;" — but  it  contained 
quite  as  much  substance  as  some  that  are  longer.  It  embraced  three  distinct 
ideas ',  first,  that  I  was  opposed  to  the  continuance,  as  1  had  been  to  the 
commencement,  of  the  war  with  Mexico,  and  that  I  was  ready  to  vote  for 
any  amount  of  money  which  might,  be  demanded  for  the  legitimate  pur 
poses  of  negotiating  a  treaty  of  peace;  second,  that  I  desired  no  further  ac 
quisition  of  territory  on  any  side  or  of  any  sort;  and  third,  that  I  was  un 
compromisingly  opposed  to  extending  the  slaveholding  territory  of  the 
Union. 

And  in  conformity  with  this  last  view,  when  the  honorable  member  from 
Pennsylvania  [Mr.  WILMOT]  offered  his  celebrated  proviso  not  long  after 
wards,  I  unhesitatingly  voted  for  it. 

Sir,  I  have  never  regretted  that  vote;  nor  have  I  ever  changed,  in  any 
degree,  the  opinions  and  the  principles  upon  which  it'was  founded.  Again 
and  again,  I  have  reiterated  those  opinions  and  vindicated  those  principles; 
and  as  my  consistency  and  steadfastness  on  this  point  have  been  artfully 
drawn  into  question  in  some  quarters,  I  must  be  pardoned  for  a  few  cita 
tions  from  speeches  of  my  own,  in  which  I  have  had  occasion  to  allude  to 
the  subject ,  both  in  this  House  and  elsewhere. 

Here,  sir,  in  the  first  place,  is  an  extract  from  a  speech  delivered  by  me 
in  Faneuil  Hall  on  the  23d  day  of  September,  1846,  hardly  more  than  six 
weeks  after  the  occasion  which  I  have  just  described: 

"  Sir,  upon  all  the  great  points  of  this  question,  there  is  no  difference  of  opinion  whatever. 
All  agree,  that  this  war  ought  never  to  have  been  commenced.  All  agree,  that  it  ought  to  be  brought 
to  a  close  at  the  earliest  practicable  moment.  No  man  present  denies  that  it  originated,  primari 
ly,  in  the  annexation  of  Texas  ;  and  secondarily,  in  the  marching  of  the  American  army  into 


•the  disputed  territory  beyond  the  Nueces.  And  no  man  present  fails  to  deplore  and  to  con 
demn  both  of  these  measures.  Nor  is  there  a  Whig  in  this  assembly,  nor,  in  my  opinion,  a 
Whiff  throughout  the  Union,  who  does  not  deprecate,  from  the  bottom  of  his  heart,  any  prose 
cution  of  this  war,  for  the  purpose  of  aggression,  invasion,  or  conquest. 

"This,  this  is  the  matter,  gentlemen,  in  which  we  take  the  deepest  concern  this  day.  Where, 
when,  is  this  war  to  end,  and  what  are  to  be  its  fruits?  Unquestionably,  we  are  not  to  forget  that  it 
takes  two  to  make  a  bargain.  Unquestionably,  we  are  not  to  forget,  that  Mexico  must  be  will 
ing  to  negotiate,  before  our  own  Government  can  be  held  wholly  responsible  for  the  failure  of  a 
treaty  of  peace.  I  rejoice,  for  one,  that  the  Administration  have  shown  what  little  readiness 
they  have  shown,  for  bringing  the  war  to  a  conclusion.  I  have  given  them  credit,  elsewhere,  for 
their  original  overtures  last  autumn;  and  I  shall  not  deny  them  whatever  credit  they  deserve  for 
their  renewed  overtures  now.  But,  Mr-  President,  it  is  not  everything  which  takes  the  name 
or  the  form  of  an  overture  of  peace,  which  is  entitled  to  respect  as  such.  If  it  proposes  unjust 
and  unreasonable  terms  ;  if  it  manifests  an  overbearing  and  oppressive  spirit ;  if  it  presumes  on 
the  power  of  those  who  make  it,  or  on  the  weakness  of  those  to  whom  it  is  offered,  to  exact 
hard  and  heartless  conditions;  if,  especially,  it  be  of  a  character  at  once  offensive  and  injurious 
to  the  rights  of  one  of  the  nations  concerned,  and  to  the  principles  of  a  large  majority  of  the 
other ;  then  it  prostitutes  the  name  of  peace,  and  its  authors  are  only  entitled  to  the  contempt 
which  belongs  to  those  who  add  hypocrisy  to  injustice. 

"  Mr.  President,  when  the  President  of  the  United  States,  on  a  sudden  and  serious  emergen 
cy,  demanded  of  Congress  the  means  of  meeting  a  war,  into  which  he  had  already  plunged  the 
country,  he  pledged  himself,  in  thrice  repeated  terms,  to  be  ready  at  all  times  to  settle  the  ex 
isting  disputes  between  us  and  Mexico,  whenever  Mexico  should  be  willing  either  to  make  or 
to  receive  propositions  to  that  end.  To  that  pledge  he  stands  solemnly  recorded,  in  the  sight  of 
God  and  of  men.  Now,  sir,  it  was  no  part  of  our  existing  disputes,  at  that  time,  whether  we 
should  have  possession  of  California,  or  of  any  other  territory  beyond  the  Rio  Grande.  And 
the  President,  in  prosecuting  plans  of  invasion  and  conquest,  which  look  to  the  permanent  ac 
quisition  of  any  such  territories,  will  be  as  false  to  his  own  pledges,  as  he  is  to  the  honor  and 
interests  of  his  country. 

"  I  believe  that  I  speak  the  sentiments  of  the  whole  people  of  Massachusetts — I  know  [ 
speak  my  own — in  saying  that  we  want  no  more  territorial  possessions,  to  become  the  nurseries 
of  new  slave  States.  It  goes  hard  enough  with  us,  that  the  men  and  money  of  the  nation  should 
be  employed  for  the  defence  of  such  acquisitions,  already  made ;  but  to  originate  new  enter 
prises  for  extending  the  area  of  slavery  by  force  of  arms,  is  revolting  to  the  moral  sense  of 
-every  American  freeman. 

"  Sir,  I  trust  there  is  no  man  here  who  is  not  ready  to  stand  by  the  Constitution  of  the  coun 
try.  I  trust  there  is  no  man  here  who  is  not  willing  to  hold  fast  to  the  union  of  the  States,  be 
its  limits  ultimately  fixed  a  little  on  one  side,  or  a  little  on  the  other  side,  of  the  line  of  his  own 
choice.  For  myself,  I  will  not  contemplate  the  idea  of  the  dissolution  of  the  Union,  in  any 
conceivable  event.  There  are  no  boundaries  of  sea  or  land,  of  rock  or  river,  of  desert  or  moun 
tain,  to  which  I  will  not  try,  at  least,  to  carry  out  my  lo  ve  of  country,  whenever  they  shall  really 
be  the  boundaries  of  my  country.  If  the  day  of  dissolution  ever  comes,  it  shall  bring  the  evidence 
of  its  own  irresistible  necessity  with  it.  I  avert  my  eyes  from  all  recognition  of  such  a  necessity 
in  the  distance.  Nor  am  I  ready  for  any  political  organizations  or  platforms  less  broad  and  com 
prehensive  than  those  which  may  include  and  uphold  the  whole  Whig  party  of  the  United  States. 
But  all  this  is  consistent,  and  shall,  in  my  own  case,  practically  consist,  with  a  just  sense  of  the 
evils  of  slavery;  with  an  earnest  opposition  to  everything  designed  to  prolong  or  extend  it;  with 
a  firm  resistance  to  all  its  encroachments  on  northern  rights ;  and  above  all,  with  an  uncompro 
mising  hostility  to  all  measures  for  introducing  new  slave  States  and  new  slave  Territories  into 
our  Union." 

1  come  next,  Mr.  Chairman,  to  a  speech  delivered  in  this  House  on  the 
Slh  of  January,  1847,  when  I  found  it  necessary  to  oppose  the  passage  of  a 
bill  for  raising  an  additional  military  force.  I  think  the  bill  was  called,  the 
Ten  Regiment  bill. 

On  that  occasion,  after  alluding  to  the  probable  influence  of  the  measure 
under  consideration  on  the  chances  of  a  peace  with  Mexico,  I  proceeded  to 
say,  as  follows: 

"And  where,  too,  is  to  be  our  domestic  peace,  if  this  policy  is  to  be  pursued  ?  According  to 
the  President's  plan  of  obtaining  'ample  indemnity  for  the  expenses  of  the  war,'  the  longer  the 
war  lasts,  and  the  more  expensive  it  is  made,  the  more  territory  we  shall  require  to  indemnify 
us.  Every  dollar  of  appropriation  for  this  war  is  thus  the  purchase-money  of  more  acres  of 
Mexican  soil.  Who  knows  how  much  of  Chihuahua,  and  Coahuila,  and  New  Leon,  and  Du- 
rango,  it  will  take  to  remunerate  us  for  the  expenses  of  these  ten  regiments  of  regulars,  who 
.are  to  be  enlisted  for  five  years?  And  to  what  end  are  we  thus  about  to  add  acre  to  acre  and 


10 

field  to  field?     To  furnish  the  subject  of  that  great  domestic  struggle,  which  lias  already  been  fore 
shadowed  in  this  debate! 

Mr.  Chairman,  I  have  no  time  to  discuss  the  subject  of  slavery  on  this  occasion,  nor  should1 
I  desire  to  discuss  it  in  this  connection,  if  I  had  more  time.  But  1  must  not  omit  a  few  plain 
words  on  the  momentous  issue  which  has  now  been  raised.  I  speak  for  Massachusetts — I  be 
lieve  I  speak  the  sentiments  of  all  New  England,  and  of  many  other  States  out  of  New  England,, 
— when  I  say,  that  upon  this  question  our  minds  are  made  up.  So  far  as  we  have  power — 
constitutional  or  moral  power — to  control  political  events,  we  are  resolved  that  there  shall  be 
no  further  extension  of  the  territory  of  this  Union,  subject  to  the  institutions  of  slavery. 
*=**  *  *  *  #  # 

"I  believe  the  North  is  ready  to  stand  by  the  Constitution,  with  all  its  compromises,  as  it 
now  is.  I  do  not  intend,  moreover,  to  throw  out  nny  threats  of  disunion,  whatever  may  be  the 
result.  I  do  not  intend,  now  or  ever,  to  contemplate  disunion  as  a  cure  for  any  imaginable 
evil.  At  the  same  time  I  do  not  intend  to  be  driven  from  a  firm  expression  of  purpose,  and  ^ 
steadfast  adherence  to  principle,  by  any  threats  of  disunion  from  any  other  quarter.  The  peo 
ple  of  New  England,  whom  I  have  any  privilege  to  speak  for,  do  not  desire,  as  1  understand 
their  views — I  know  my  own  heart  and  my  own  principles,  and  can  at  least  speak  for  them — 
to  gain  one  foot  of  territory  by  conquest,  and  as  the  result  of  the  prosecution  of  the  war  with 
Mexico.  I  do  not  believe  that  even  the  abolitionists  of  the  North — though  I  am  one  of  the  last 
persons  who  would  be  entitled  to  speak  their  sentiments — would  be  unwilling  to  be  found  in 
combination  with  southern  gentlemen,  who  may  see  fit  to  espouse  this  doctrine.  We  desire 
peace.  We  believe  that  this  vrar  ought  never  to  have  been  commenced,  and  we  do  not  wish  to 
have  it  made  the  pretext  for  plundering  Mexico  of  one  foot  of  h^r  lands.  But  if  the  war  is  to 
be  prosecuted,  and  if  territories  are  to  be  conquered  and  annexed,  we  shall  .stand  fast  and  for 
ever  to  the  principle  that,  so  far  as  we  are  concerned,  these  territories  shall  be  the  exclusive 
abode  of  freemen. 

"Mr.  Chairman,  peace,  peace  is  the  grand  compromise  of  this  question  between  the  North* 
and  the  South.  Let  the  President  abandon  all  schemes  of  further  conquest.  Let  him  abandon 
his  plans  of  pushing  his  forces  to  the  heart  of  Mexico.  Now,  before  any  reverses  have  been 
experienced  by  the  American  arms,  he  can  do  so  with  the  highest  honor.  Let  him  exhibit  a 
spirit  of  magnamity  towards  a  weak  and  distracted  neighbor.  Let  him  make  distinct  pro 
clamation  of  the  terms  on  which  he  is  ready  to  negotiate ;  and  let  those  terms  be  such  as  shall 
involve  no  injustice  towards  Mexico,  and  engender  no  sectional  strife  among  ourselves.  But,, 
at  all  events,  let  him  tell  us  what  those  terms  are  to-be.  A  proclamation  of  Executive  purposes 
is  essential  to  any  legislative  or  any  national  harmony.  The  North  ought  to  know  them 
the  South  ought  to  know  them  ;  the  whole  country  ought  to  understand  for  what  ends  its  blood 
and  treasure  are  to  be  expended.  It  is  high  time  that  some  specific  terms  of  accommodation 
were  proclaimed  to  Congress,  to  Mexico,  and  to  the  world.  If  they  be  reasonable,  no  man  will 
hesitate  to  unite  in  supplying  whatever  means  may  be  necessary  for  enforcing  them." 

I  come  lastly,  Mr.  Chairman,  to  a  speech  which  I  made  in  this  House 
on  the  22d  of  February,  1847,  and  from  which  I  shall  venture  (o  quote  a 
still  longer  extract.  It  was  on  this  occasion,  sir,  and  in  connection  with 
these  remarks,  that  I  offered  to  (he  hill  (hen  pending — which  was  a  bill 
making  an  appropriation  of  nearly  thirty-five  millions  of  dollars  for  ihe  sin 
gle  item  of  supporting  the  army — a  proviso  in  ihe  following  words: 

'; Provided,  further,  That  these  appropriations  are  made  with  no  view  of  sanctioning  any  pro 
secution  of  the  existing  war  with  Mexico  for  the  acquisition  of  territory  to  form  new  States  to 
be  added  to  the  Union,  or  for  the  dismemberment  in  any  way  of  the  Republic  of  Mexico.1' 

That,  sir,  was  my  proviso.  And  if  anybody  shall  ever  deem  my  name 
worthy  of  being  associated  with  any  legislative  proposition,  1  hope  ihis  one 
will  not  be  forgotten.  I  am  willing  that  it  should  be  known  in  all  time  to* 
come  as  the  Winthr op  proviso. 

It  was  indeed  almost  identical  with  a  resolution  proposed  in  the  other 
branch  of  Congress,  by  an  honorable  Senator  from  Georgia,  ( Mr.  BERRIEN,} 
and  it  shared  the  same  fate  with  his  resolution.  Every  Whig  member  pre 
sent  at  the  time,  except  one,  voted  in  favor  of  its  adoption.  There  were 
seventy-six  Whigs  in  all,  from  all  parts  of  the  country,  North  and  South> 
East  and  West,  whose  names  are  inscribed  on  the  journals  in  favor  of  this 
proviso.  But  no  Democrat  voted  foi  it;  not  one.  And  among  the  names 
of  the  one'hundred  and  twenty-four  Democrats  who  defeated  it,  may  be 


11 

seen  those  of  the  honorable  member  from  Pennsylvania,  [Mr.  WILMOT,] 
and  of  the  honorable  member  from  New  York,  [Mr.  PRESTON  KING,] 
side  by  side  with  those  of  the  present  Speaker  of  this  House,  [Mr.  COBB  J 
of  the  present  chairman  of  this  committee.  [Mr.  BOYD.]  and  of  all  the 
other  Southern  Democrats  of  (he  day. 

It  was  on  this  occasion,  sir,  that  1  expressed  myself  as  follows: 

"Mr.  Chairman,  I  have  intimated  on  another  occasion  that  I  do  not  go  so  far  as  some  of  my 
friends  in  regard  to  the  propriety  or  expediency  of  withholding  all  supplies  from  the  Executive. 
While  a  foreign  nation  is  still  in  arms  against  us,  I  would  limit  the  supplies  to  some  reasonable 
scale  of  defence,  and  not  withhold  therrfaitogether.  I  would  pay  for  all  services  of  regulars  or 
volunteers  already  contracted  for.  I  would  provide  ample  means  to  prevent  our  army  from 
suffering,  whether  from  the  foe  or  from  famine,  as  long  as  they  are  in  the  field  under  constitu 
tional  authority.  Heaven  forbid  that  our  gallant  troops  should  be  left  to  perish  for  want  of  sup 
plies  because  they  are  on  a  foreign  soil,  while  they  are  liable  to  be  shot  down  by  the  command 
of  their  own  officers  if  they  refuse  to  remain  there!  But  I  cannot  regard  it  as  consistent  with 
constitutional  or  republican  principles  to  pass  this  bill  as  it  now  stands.  Even  if  I  approved  the 
war,  1  should  regard  such  a  course  of  legislation  as  unwarrantable.  Disapproving  it,  as  I  une 
quivocally  and  unqualifiedly  do,  I  am  the  more  induced  to  interpose  these  objections  to  its  adop 
tion. 

"Sir,  this  whole  Executive  policy  of  overrunning  Mexico  to  obtain  territorial  indemnities  for 
pecuniary  claims  and  the  expenses  of  the  war,  is  abhorrent  to  every  idea  of  humanity  and  of 
honor.  For  one,  I  do  not  desire  the  acquisition  of  one  inch  of  territory  by  conquest.  I  desire 
to  see  no  fields  of  blood  annexed  to  this  Union,  whether  the  price  of  the  treachery  by  which 
they  have  been  procured  shall  be  three  million  pieces  of  silver  or  only  thirty!  I  want  no  more 
areas  of  freedom,  Area,  if  I  remember  right,  signified  thrashing-floor*  in  my  old  school  diction 
ary.  We  have  had  enough  of  these  areas,  whether  of  freedom  or  slavery;  and  I  trust  this  war 
\vill  be  brought  to  a  close  without  multiplying  or  extending  them. 

"I  repeat  this  the  more  emphatically,  lest  my  vote  in  favor  of  the  Three  Million  bill  should  be 
misinterpreted.  Nothing  was  further  from  my  intention,  in  giving  that  vote,  than  to  sanction 
the  policy  of  the  Executive  in  regard  to  the  territories  of  Mexico.  If  he  insists,  indeed,  on  pur 
suing  that  policy,  and  if  a  majority  of  Congress  insist  on  giving  him  the  means,  I  prefer  pur 
chase  to  conquest;  and  had  rather  authorize  the  expenditure  of  three  millions  to  pay  Mexico, 
than  of  thirty  millions  to  whip  her.  But  everybody  must  have  understood  that  the  proviso  was 
a  virtual  nullification  of  the  bill,  for  any  purpose  of  acquiring  territory,  in  the  hands  of  a  south 
ern  administration. 

"  It  was  for  that  proviso  that  1  voted.  I  wished  to  get  the  great  principle  which  it  embodied 
fairly  on  the  statute-book.  I  believe  it  to  be  a  perfectly  constitutional  principle,  and  an  emi 
nently  conservative  principle. 

"Sir,  those  who  undertake'to  dispute  the  constitutionality  of  that  principle  must  rule  out  of 
existence  something  more  than  the  immortal  ordinance  of  1787.  My  honorable  friend  from 
South  Carolina  (Mr.  BURT)  reminded  us  the  other  day,  that  Mr.  Madison,  in  the  Federalist, 
liad  cast  some  doubt  on  the  authority  of  the  Confederation  Congress  to  pass  that  ordinance.  He 
-did  so;  but  with  what  view,  sir?  Not  to  bring  that  act  into  discredit,  but  to  enforce  upon  the 
people  of  the  United  States  the  importance  of  adopting  a  new  system  of  government,  under 
which  such  acts  might  henceforth  be  rightfully  done.  This  new  system  of  government  was 
adopted.  The  Constitution  was  established.  In  the  very  terms  of  that  Constitution  is  found  a 
provision  recognising  the  authority  of  Congress  to  prevent  the  extension  of  slavery  after  a  cer 
tain  number  of  years  "in  the  existing  States,"  and  to  prevent  its  introduction  into  the  territories 
immediately.  What  more  ?  During  the  first  session  of  the  first  Congress  of  the  United  States, 
under  this  new  Constitution,  this  same  Northwestern  ordinance,  with  its  anti-slavery  clause, 
was  solemnly  recognised  and  reenacted.  This  is  a  fact  never  before  noticed  to  my  knowledge, 
and  one  to  which  I  be?  the  attention  of  the  House.  Here  is  the  eighth  act  of  the  first  session  of 
the  first  Congiess.  Listen  to  the  preamble : 

"  'Whereas  in  order  that  the  ordinance  of  the  United  States,  in  Congress  assembled,  for  the 
government  of  the  territory  northwest  of  the  river  Ohio,  may  continue  to  have  full  effect,  it  is  requi 
site  that  certain  provisions  should  be  made,  so  as  to  adapt  the  same  to  the  present  Constitution 
of  the  United  States  : 

"  'Beit  enacted,'  &c. 

"  Then  follow  a  few  formal  changes  in  regard  to  the  governor  and  other  officers.  The  sixth 
article  of  the  ordinance  remains  untouched.  Mr.  Madison  was  a  member  of  this  first  Congress, 
as  were  many  others  of  those  most  distinguished  in-  framing  the  new  Constitution.  And  this 
bill  passed  both  branches  without  objection  and  without  any  division,  except  upon  some  imma 
terial  amendments.  , 

"  Here,  then,  we  find  the  very  framers  of  the  Constitution  themselves,  in  the  first  year  of  its, 
.adoption,  applying  the  principle  of  the  Wilmot  proviso  to  all  the  territories  which  the  General 


12 

Government  then  possessed,  without  compromise  as  to  latitude  or  longitude.  These  territo 
ries  were  as  much  the  fruit  of  the  common  sacrifices,  common  toils,  and  common  blood  of  a!T 
the  States,  as  any  which  can  be  conquered  from  Mexico.  They  were  the  joint  and  common 
property  of  the  several  States.  The  ordinance  was  unanimously  adopted  in  1787,  and  was 
reenacted  unanimously  in  1789.  Madison,  who  had  questioned  the  authority  of  the  Congress 
of  the  Confederation  to  pass  it  originally,  voted  for  it  himself  in  the  Congress  of  the  Constitu 
tion,  and  all  his  colleagues  from  the  slaveholding  States  voted  for  it  with  him.  Sir,  if  the  con 
stitutionality  of  such  an  act  can  now  be  disputed,  I  know  not  what  principle  of  the  Constitution 
can  be  considered  as  settled. 

"  I  have  said  that  I  regarded  this  principle  as  eminently  conservative,  as  well  as  entirely  con 
stitutional.  I  do  believe,  sir,  that  whenever  the  principle  of  this  proviso  shall  be  irrevocably 
established,  shall  be  considered  as  unchangeable  as  the  laws  of  the  Medes  and  Persians,  thenv 
and  not  till  then,  we  shall  have  permanent  peace  with  other  countries,  end  fixed  boundaries  for 
our  own  country.  It  is  plain  that  there  are  two  parties  in  the  free  States.  Both  of  them  are 
opposed — uncompromisingly  opposed,  as  I  hope  and  believe — to  the  extension  of  slavery.  One 
of  them,  however,  and  that  the  party  of  the  present  Administration,  are  for  the  wides't  exten 
sion  of  territory,  subject  to  the  anti-slavery  proviso.  The  other  of  them,  and  that  the  party  to 
which  I  have  the  honor  to  belong,  are,  as  I  believe,  content  with  the  Union  as  it  is,  desire  no- 
annexation  of  new  States,  and  are  utterly  opposed  to  the  prosecution  of  this  war  for  any  pur 
pose  of  dismembering  Mexico.  Between  these  two  parties  in  the  free  States  the  South  holds 
the  balance  of  power.  It  may  always  hold  it.  If  now,  therefore,  it  will  join  in  putting  an  end 
to  this  war,  and  in  arresting  the  march  of  conquest  upon  which  our  armies  have  entered,  the 
limits  of  the  Republic  as  well  as  the  limits  of  slavery  may  be  finally  established. 

"  It  is  in  this  view  that  I  believe  the  principle  of  the  Wilmot  proviso  to  be  the  great  conserva 
tive  principle  of  the  day;  and  it  is  in  this  view  that  I  desire  to  place  it  immutably  upon  our  sta 
tute  books.  The  South  has  no  cause  to  be  jealous  of  such  a  movement  from  our  side  of  the 
House.  The  South  should  rather  welcome  it — the  whole  country  should  welcome  it — as  an 
overture  of  domestic  peace. 

"Sir,  much  as  I  deplore  the  war  in  which  we  are  involved — deeply  as  I  regret  the  whole 
policy  of  annexation — if  the  result  of  these  measures  should  be  to  ingraft  the  policy  of  this  pro 
viso  permanently  and  ineradicably  upon  our  American  system,  1  should  regard  it  as  a  blessing 
cheaply  purchased.  Good  would,  indeed,  have  been  brought  out  of  evil;  and  we  should  be 
almost  ready  to  say  with  the  great  dramatist  of  old  England — 

"  '  If  after  every  tetnpest  comes  such  calm, 

Let  the  winds  blow  till  they  have  wakened  death.' 

"  Yes,  sir,  in  that  event,  instead  of  indulging  in  any  more  jeers  and  taunts  upon  the  Lone 
Star  of  Texas,  we  might  rather  hail  it  as  the  star  of  hope,  and  promise,  and  peace;  and  might 
be  moved  to  apply  to  it  the  language  of  another  great  English  poet — 

"  '  Fairest  of  stars !  last  in  the  train  of  night, 
If  rather  thou  belong'st  not  to  the  dawn.' 

"  If  we  could  at  last  lay  down  permanently  the  boundary  of  our  Republic — if  we  could  feel 
that  we  had  extinguished  forever  the  lust  of  extended  dominion  in  the  bosoms  of  the  American 
people — if  we  could  present  that  old  god  Terminus,  of  whom  we  have  heard  such  eloquent  men 
tion  elsewhere,  not  with  out-stretched  arm  still  pointing  to  new  territories  in  the  distance,  but 
with  limbs  lopped  off,  as  the  Romans  sometimes  represented  him,  betokening  that  he  had 
reached  his  very  furthest  goal — if  we  could  be  assured  that  our  limits  were  to  be  no  further 
advanced,  either  by  purchase  or  conquest,  by  fraud  or  by  force — then,  then  we  might  feel  that 
we  had  taken  a  bond  of  fate  for  the  perpetuation  of  our  Union. 

"  It  is  in  this  spirit  that  I  voted  for  the  proviso  in  the  Three  Million  bill.  It  is  in  this  spirit 
that  I  offer  the  third  proviso  to  the  Thirty  Millio^i  bill  before  us.  Pass  them  both — cut  off,  by 
one  and  the  same  stroke,  all  idea  both  of  the  extension  of  slavery  and  the  extension  of  terri 
tory — and  we  shall  neither  need  the  three  millions,  nor  the  thirty  millions,  for  securing  peace 
and  harmony,  both  at  home  and  abroad." 

Mr.  Chairman,  I  know  not  but  that  1  might  be  induced  to  abate  some 
thing  of  the  ambitious  rhetoric  of  these  remarks,  if  I  were  making  the 
speech  over  again;  but  I  do  not  desire  to  change  one  jot  or  tittle  of  their 
substantial  matter.  I  adhere,  this  day,  to  all  the  sentiments  and  all  the 
principles  of  that  speech;  and,  so  far  as  the)7  are  applicable  to  the  present 
moment  and  to  existing  circumstances,  and  so  far  as  may  consist  with  the 
paramount  duty  which  I  o\ve  to  the.  peace  and  the  union  of  my  country,  I 
intend  to  shape  my  course  with  a  view  of  carrying  them  out  to  their  prac 
tical  fulfilment. 


13 

I  have  long  ago  made  up  my  mind,  that,  whatever  prospect  there  may 
be  of  adjusting  and  reconciling  the  conflicting  interests  and  claims  of  differ 
ent  portions  of  the  Union,  there  is  no  prospect,  and  no  possibility,  of  har 
monizing  their  discordant  opinions.  Certainly,  sir,  neither  labored  argu 
ments,  nor  heated  appeals,  nor  angry  menaces;  neither  threats  of  disorgani 
zation  here,  nor  of  conventions  elsewhere,  have  done  anything  towards  ac 
complishing  such  a  result,  so  far  as  I  am  concerned. 

I  hold  now,  as  I  held  three  years  ago,  that  it  is  entirely  constitutional  for 
Congi ess  lo  apply  the  principles  of  the  ordinance  of  1T87  to  any  territory 
which  may  be  added  to  the  Union. 

I  hold  now,  as  I  held  then,  that  the  South  have  no  right  to  complain  of 
such  an  application  of  these  principles  by  those  of  us  who  have  declared 
this  doctrine  in  advance,  and  who  have  steadily  opposed  all  acquisition  of 
territory. 

I  hold  now,  as  I  held  then,  that  their  reproaches  and  fulminations  ought 
to  be  exclusively  reserved  for  those  among  themselves,  and  for  (heir  allies 
in  other  parts  of  (he  country,  who  have  persisted  in  bringing  this  territory 
into  the  Union,  with  the  distinct  understanding  that  it  was  "to  furnish  the 
subject  of  this  great  domestic  struggle." 

1  hold  now,  too,  as  I  held  then,  that  one  of  the  greatest  advantages  of 
engrafting  these  principles  unchangeably  upon  our  national  policy,  would 
be  to  extinguish  the  spirit  of  annexation  and  conquest  in  the  region  where 
we  all  must  acknowledge  that  it  has  ever  been  most  rife,  and  thus  to  secure 
for  us  ^permanent  peace  with  other  countries,  and  fixed  boundaries  for 
our  own  country ." 

Do  you  remember,  Mr.  Chairman,  that  old  classical  dialogue  between 
Pyrrhus,  the  King  of  Bpirus,  and  his  eloquent  counsellor,  Cineas?  Pyr- 
rhus,  we  are  told,  in  disclosing  his  plans  of  government,  had  stated  his 
purpose  of  subjecling  Italy  to  his  sway;  when  Cineas  asked,  "And  having 
overcome  the  Romans,  what  will  your  majesty  do  next?"  "  vVhy,  Sicily ,': 
said  the  King,  "is  next  door  to  Italy,  and  it  will  be  easy  to  subdue  that." 
"And  having  got  possession  of  Sicily,"  said  the  counsellor,  "what  next 
will  be  your  royal  pleasure?"  "I  have  a  mind,  then,"  said  Pyrrhus,  "tc 
pass  over  into  Africa."  "And  what  after  that?"  said  Cineas.  "Why  then, 
at  last,  we  will  give  ourselves  up  to  quiet,  and  enjoy  a  delightful  peace." 
"But  what,"  rejoined  the  wise  and  sagacious  counsellor,  " what  prevents 
you  from  enjoying  that  quiet  and  that  delightful  peace  now?" 

I  can  conceive  such  a  dialogue  passing  between  one  of  our  late  American 
Presidents  and  some  confidential  friend  or  Cabinet  adviser.  "  I  have  a  mind 
to  annex  Texas."  "And  what  will  you  do  next?"  "Why,  Mexico  is 
next  door  to  Texas,  and  it  will  be  easy  to  subject  her  to  our  arms."  "'And 
having  conquered  Mexico,  and  taken  possession  of  such  of  her  provinces  as 
you  desire,  what  next  does  your  excellency  propose?"  "I  think  we  shall 
then  be  ready  for  passing  over  to  Cuba."  "And  what  after  that?"  Why 
then,  we  will  devote  ourselves  to  peace,  and  enjoy  a  quiet  life."  "And 
why,  why — it  might  well  have  been  asked — should  you  not  enjoy  that 
peace  and  quiet  now?  Why  will  you  persist  in  disturbing  the  quiet,  and 
perilling  the  peace,  and  putting  in  jeopardy  the  glorious  Union,  you  now 
enjoy,  by  rushing  into  so  wild,  so  wanton,  and,  I  had  almost  said,  so  wicked 
a  policy?" 

Sir,  it  is  not  to  be  denied  that  it  is  this  spirit  of  annexation  and  conquest- 


14 

growing  by  what  it  feeds  on.  which  has  involved  us  in  all  our  present  trou 
bles,  and  which  threatens  us  with  still  greater  troubles  in  future.  We  are 
reaping  the  natural  and  just  results  of  the  annexation  of  Texas,  and  of  the 
war  which  inevitably  followed  that  annexation.  We  have  almost  realized, 
(as  I  believe  I  have  somewhere  else  said,)  the  fate  of  the  greedy  and  rave 
nous  bird  in  the  old  fable.  .^Esop  tells  us  of  an  eagle,  which,  in  one  of  its 
towering  flights,  seeing  a  bit  of  tempting  flesh  upon  an  altar,  pounced  upon 
it,  and  bore  it  away  in  triumph  to  its  nest.  But,  by  chance,  he  adds, a  coal 
of  fire  from  the  altar  was  sticking  to  it  at  the  time,  which  set  fire  to  the  nest 
and  consumed  it  in  a  trice.  And  our  American  eagle,  sir,  has  been  seen 
stooping  from  its  pride  of  place,  and  hovering  over  the  altars  of  a  weak 
neighboring  power.  It  has  at  last  pounced  upon  her  provinces,  and  borne 
them  away  from  her  in  triumph.  But  burning  coals  have  clung  to  them! 
Discord  and  confusion  have  come  with  them!  And  our  own  American 
homestead  is  now  threatened  with  conflagration! 

This,  Mr.  Chairman,  is  the  brief  history  of  our  condition.  I  trust  in 
heaven  that  the  lesson  will  not  be  lost  upon  us.  Gentlemen  talk  of  settling 
the  whole  controversy  which  has  been  kindled  between  the  North  and  the 
South  by  some  sweeping  compromise,  or  some  comprehensive  plan  of  re 
conciliation.  I  hope  that  the  controversy  will  be  settled;  sir;  but  I  most 
earnestly  hope  and  pray,  that  it  will  not  so  be  settled,  that  we  shall  ever  be 
in  danger  of  forgetting  its  origin.  I  hope  and  pray  that  it  will  not  so  be 
settled,  that  we  shall  ever  again  imagine,  that  we  can  enter  with  impunity 
on  a  career  of  aggression,  spoliation,  and  conquest!  This  embittered  strife, 
this  protracted  suspense,  these  tedious  days  and  weeks  and  months  of  anx 
iety  and  agitation,  will  have  had  their  full  compensation  and  reward,  if  they 
shall  teach  us  never  again  to  forget  the  curse  which  has  been  pronounced 
upon  those  "who  remove  their  neighbors'  land-marks;" — if  they  shall  teach 
us  to  realize,  in  all  time  to  come,  that  a  policy  of  peace  and  justice  towards 
others,  is  the  very  law  and  condition  of  our  own  domestic  harmony  and  our 
own  national  Union! 

And  now,  Mr.  Chairman,  how  is  the  great  controversy  by  which  our 
country  is  agitated,  to  be  settled? 

In  the  first  place,  sir,  I  do  not  believe  that  it  is  to  be  settled  by  multiply 
ing  and  accumulating  issues.  I  have  no  faith  in  the  plan  of  raking  open 
alj  the  subjects  of  disagreement  and  difference  which  have  existed  at  anjf 
time  between  different  sections  of  the  country,  with  a  view  of  attempting 
to  bring  them  within  the  influence  of  some  single  panacea .  Certainly,  sir, 
if  such  a  plan  is  to  be  attempted,  we  are  not  to  forget  that  there  are  two 
sides  to  the  question  of  aggression.  The  Southern  States  complain,  on  the 
one  side,  that  some  of  their  runaway  slaves  have  not  been  delivered  up  by 
the  free  States,  agreeably  to  the  provisions  of  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States.  The  Northern  States  complain,  on  the  other  side,  that  some  of  their 
freemen  have  been  seized  and  imprisoned  in  the  slave  States,  contrary  to 
the  provisions  of  the  same  Constitution.  I  was,  myself,  called  upon  some 
years  ago,  by  the  merchants  and  ship-owners  of  Boston — as  patriotic  a  body 
of  men  as  can  be  found  on  the  face  of  this  continent,  and  whose  zeal  for 
liberty  is  not  less  conspicuous  than  their  devotion  to  Union — to  bring  this 
latter  subject  to  the  attention  of  Congress.  I  made  a  report  upon  it  to  this 
House  in  1843,  in  which,  among  other  remarks,  I  used  the  following  lan 
guage  : 


15 

"That  American  or  foreign  seamen,  charged  with  no  crime,  and  infected  with  no  contagion, 
should  be  searched  for  on  board  the  vessels  to  which  they  belong;  should  be  seized  while  in  the 
discharge  of  their  duties,  or,  it  may  be,  while  asleep  in  their  berths;  should  be  dragged  on 
shore  and  incarcerated  without  any  other  examination  than  an  examination  of  their  skins;  and 
should  be  rendered  liable,  in  certain  contingencies,  over  which  they  may  have  no  possible  con 
trol,  to  be  subjected  to  the  ignominy  and  agony  of  the  lash,  and  even  to  the  infinitely  more  .ig 
nominious  and  agonizing  fate  of  being  sold  into  slavery  for  life,  and  all  for  purposes  of  police — 
is  an  idea  too  monstrous  to  be  entertained  for  a  moment." 

Now,  sir,  I  will  not  undertake  to  compare  the  two  grievances  to  which  I 
have  thus  alluded.  But  this  I  do  say,  that  if  the  one  is  to  be  insisted  on  as 
a  subject  for  immediate  redress  and  reparation,  I  see  not  why  the  other 
should  not  be  also.  For  myself,  I  acknowledge  my  allegiance  to  the  whole 
Constitution  of  the  United  States,  and  I  am  willing  to  unite  in  fulfilling 
and  enforcing,  in  all  reasonable  and  proper  modes,  every  one  of  its  provis 
ions.  I  recognise,  indeed,  a  Power  above  all  human  law-makers,  and  a 
Code  above  all  earthly  constitutions!  And  whenever  I  perceive  a  plain  con 
flict  of  jurisdiction  and  authority  between  the  Constitution  of  my  country 
and  the  laws  of  my  God,  my  course  is  clear.  I  shall  resign  my  office,  what 
ever  it  may  be,  and  renounce  all  connection  with  public  service  of  any  sort. 
Never,  never,  sir,  will  1  put  myself  under  the  necessity  of  calling  upon 
God  to  witness  my  promise  to  support  a.  constitution,  any  part  of  which  I 
consider  to  be  inconsistent  with  his  commands. 

But  it  is  a  libel  upon  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States — and,  what 
is  worse,  sir,  it  is  a  libel  upon  the  great  and  good  men  who  framed,  adopted, 
and  ratified  it;  it  is  a  libel  upon  Washington,  and  Franklin,  and  Hamilton, 
and  Madison,  upon  John  Adams,  and  John  Jay ,  oncl  Rufus  King;  it  is  a 
libel  upon  them  all,  and  upon  the  whole  American  people  of  1789,  who 
sustained  them  in  their  noble  work;  and  upon  all  who,  from  that  time  to 
this,  generation  after  generation,  in  any  capacity,  National,  Municipal,  or 
State,  have  lifted  their  hands  to  heaven,  in  attestation  of  their  allegiance  to 
the  Government  of  their  country — it  is  a  gross  libel  upon  every  one  of  them, 
to  assert  or  insinuate  that  there  is  any  such  inconsistency!  Let  us  not  do 
such  dishonor  to  the  Fathers  of  the  Republic,  and  to  the  Framers  of  the 
Constitution.  It  is  a  favorite  policy,  I  know,  of  some  of  the  ultraists  in  my 
own  part  of  the  country,  to  stigmatize  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States 
as  a  pro-slavery  compact.  I  deny  it,  sir.  I  hold,  on  the  other  hand,  that 
it  is  a  pro-liberty  compact — the  most  effective  pro-liberty  compact  which  the 
World  has  ever  seen,  Magna  Charta  not  excepted — and  one  which  every 
friend  to  liberty — human  liberty,  or  political  liberty — ought  steadfastly  to 
maintain  and  support. 

"To  secure  the  blessings  of  liberty  to  ourselves  and  our  posterity," — this 
was  the  grand  climax  in  that  enumeration  of  its  objects  which  constitutes 
its  well-remembered  preamble.  This  was  the  object  for  which  it  was  avow 
edly ,  and  for  which  it  was  really  framed ;  and  this  is  the  object  which  it  has, 
in  fact,  beyond  all  other  instruments,  advanced  and  promoted. 

The  Convention  which  framed  that  instrument  found  African  slavery,  in 
deed,  a  fixed  fact  upon  our  soil;  and  some  of  the  provisions  which  they 
adopted,  had  undoubted  and  admitted  reference  to  that  fact.  But  what  is 
the  legitimate  interpretation  of  these  provisions?  It  is  a  remark,  I  think?as 
old  as  Epictetus,that  everything  has  two  handles;  and  it  is  as  true  of  these 
provisions  as  of  everything  else,  that  \ve  must  take  hold  of  them  by  the 
right  handle,  in  order  to  understand  their  true  design. 


16 

We  are  told  that  the  Constitution  encouraged  slavery  by  providing  for 
the  toleration  of  the  African  slave-trade  for  twenty  years.  In  my  judgment, 
sir,  it  should  rather  be  said,  that  the  Constitution  struck  a  strong,  and, as  its 
framers  undoubtedly  believed ,  a  fatal  blow  at  slavery,  by  securing  to  the 
Federal  Government  the  power,  which  it  never  before  possessed,  to  prohibit 
that  trade  at  the  end  of  twenty  years. 

We  are  told,  that  it  encouraged  slavery,  by  making  it  the  basis  of  repre 
sentation  in  this  House.  In  my  judgment,  it  should  rather  be  said,  that  it 
discouraged  slavery,  by  taking  away  two-fifths  of  that  representation  to  which 
the  southern  States  would  have  been  entitled  on  their  black  population,  if 
that  population  had  been  a  wholly  free  population. 

We  are  told  that  it  encouraged  slavery,  by  providing  for  the  suppression 
of  insurrections.  But  every  body  knows,  that  this  provision  had  as  much 
reference  to  insurrections  in  the  free  States  as  in  the  slave  States;  and  that, 
in  point  of  fact,  it  was  Shay's  rebellion  in  Massachusetts,  which,  being 
in  progress  at  the  very  period  when  the  Constitution  was  under  considera 
tion,  gave  an  immediate  impulse  to  the  movement  by  which  the  power  of 
interfering  in  such  cases  was  conferred  on  the  Federal  Government. 
" Among  the  ripening  incidents,"  said  Mr.  Madison,  in  his  account  of  the 
circumstances  which  led  to  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution,  "was  the  in 
surrection  of  Shay,  in  Massachusetts,  against  her  government,  which  was 
with  difficulty  suppressed,  notwithstanding  the  influence  on  the  insurgents 
of  an  apprehended  interposition  of  the  Federal  troops." 

We  are  told,  finally,  that  the  Constitution  encouraged  slavery,  by  a  pro 
vision  for  the  surrender  of  persons  "held  to  service  or  labor."  Now,  sir, 
even  this  provision  fulfils  the  suggestion  which  was  made  by  Mr.  Madi 
son  at  the  time  the  Constitution  was  framed,  and  "avoids  the  idea  that 
there  can  be  property  in  man."  It  demands  of  us  only  a  recognition  of 
the  admitted  and  familiar  fact,  that  that  there  may  be  property  in  "the  service 
or  labor"  of  man.  It  provides  for  the  restoration  of  all  runaways  alike, 
white  or  black,  who  may  be  "held  to  service  or  labor"  for  life  or  for  years, 
as  indented  apprentices  or  otherwise,  in  any  part  of  the  country,  precluding 
all  right  on  the  part  of  any  of  the  States  to  inquire.,  for  any  purpose  of  dis 
crimination,  in  regard  to  fugitives  from  other  States,  by  what  tenure,  of  tem 
porary  contract  or  of  hereditary  bondage,  they  are  held  to  such  "service  or 
labor."  If  by  some  emancipation  act,  like  that  which  was  adopted  many- 
years  ago  by  Great  Britain  in  reference  to  her  West  India  colonies,  the 
slaves  in  our  southern  States  should  be  converted  into  apprentices  for  a 
term  of  years,  this  article  of  the  Constitution  would  be  as  applicable  to  that 
state  of  things,  as  it  is  to  the  state  of  things  now  existing.  It  has  no  neces 
sary  or  exclusive  relation  to  the  existence  of  slavery.  But  taking  it,  as  it 
was  unquestionably  intended,  as  a  provision  for  the  restoration  of  slaves, 
as  long  as  slavery  shall  exist,  is  there  enough  in  this  clause  of  the  Consti 
tution  to  justify  any  one  in  branding  that  instrument  with  the  abhorrent 
title  of  a  pro- slavery  compact*? 

Sir,  the  Constitution  is  to  be  considered  and  judged  of  as  a  whole.  The 
provisions  which  relate  to  the  same  subject-matter,  certainly,  are  to  be  ex 
amined  together,  and  compared  with  each  other,  in  order  to  obtain  a  just 
interpretation  of  its  real  character  and  intent.  Let  this  clause,  then,  be 
taken  in  connection  with  that  which  has  authorized  and  effected  the  anni- 


17 

hilation  of  the  African  slave  trade,  as  a  lawful  trade ,  from  any  part  of  this 
vast  American  Union.  Let  the  few  cases  in  which  individual  fugitives  may 
be  remanded  to  their  captivity,  in  conformity  with  one  of  these  provisions, 
be  compared  with  the  countless  instances  in  which  whole  shiploads  of  free 
men  would  have  been  torn  from  their  native  soil  and  transported  into  sla 
very,  but  for  the  other;  and  then  tell  me  what  is  the  just  designation  of  the 
compact  which  contains  them  both!  Suppose,  sir,  for  a  moment,  that  the 
framers  of  the  Constitution  had  resolved  to  ignore  the  existence  of  slavery 
altogether;  suppose  that  the  idea,  which  I  have  sometimes  heard  suggested 
as  a  desirable  one,  had  been  adopted  by  them  at  the  outset,  and  that  all  the 
pre-existing  rights  of  the  States  in  regard  to  slavery  and  all  its  incidents  had 
been  left  unrestricted  and  unaltered;  would  that  have  better  subserved  the 
great  cause  of  human  liberty?  We  should  have  had,  indeed,  no  fugitive 
slave  clause.  But  for  every  slave  who  made  his  escape,  we  should  have 
had  a  hundred  slaves,  freshly  brought  over  from  Africa,  Brazil,  or  the  West 
Indies,  as  long  as  there  was  a  foot  of  soil  on  which  they  could  be  profitably 
employed;  and  every  one  of  them  must  have  been  counted,  not  as  three- 
fifths,  but  as  a  whole  man,  to  swell  the  basis  of  that  representation  by 
which  the  slave  interest  would  have  been  rendered  predominant  forever  in 
our  land ! 

Undoubtedly,  Mr.  Chairman,  there  are  provisions  in  the  Constitution 
which  involve  us  in  painful  obligations,  and  from  which  some  of  us  would 
rejoice  to  be  relieved,  and  this  is  one  of  them.  But  there  is  none,  none,  in 
my  judgment,  which  involves  any  conscientious  or  religious  difficulty.  I 
know  no  reservation,  equivocation,  or  evasion,  in  the  oath  which  I  have  so 
often  taken  to  support  that  Constitution;  and  whenever  any  measure  is 
proposed  to  me  for  fulfilling  or  enforcing  any  one  of  its  clear  obligations  or 
express  stipulations,  I  shall  give  to  it  every  degree  of  attention,  considera 
tion,  and  support,  which  the  justice,  the  wisdom,  the  propriety,  and  the 
practicability  of  its  peculiar  provisions  may  demand  or  warrant.  In  legis 
lating,  however,  for  the  restoration  of  Southern  slaves,!  shall  nottforget  the 
security  of  Northern  freemen.  Nor,  in  testifying  rny  allegiance  to  what  has 
been  termed  the  Extradition  clause  of  the  Constitution,  shall  I  overlook 
those  great  fundamental  principles  of  all  free  governments — the  Habeas 
Corpus  and  the  Trial  by  Jury. 

But  I  repeat,  Mr.  Chairman,  that  I  am  for  giving  a  separate  and  inde 
pendent  consideration  to  separate  and  independent  measures.  I  am  for 
dealing  with  present  and  pressing  difficulties  by  themselves,  and  for  acting 
upon  others  afterwards  as  they  arise. 

The  great  questions,  which  demand  oui  consideration  at  this  moment, 
are  these  which  relate  to  our  new  territorial  acquisitions;  and  to  them,  and 
them  alone,  I  am  now  for  devoting  myself.  And  the  first  of  these  questions 
is  that  which  relates  to  California. 

What  is  California?  But  yesterday,  sir,  it  was  a  colony  in  embryo. 
But  yesterday — to  use  the  language  which  Mr.  Burke  once  applied  to  Amer 
ica — it  was  -<a  little  speck,  scarce  visible  in  the  mass  of  national  interest; 
a  small  seminal  principle,  rather  than  a  formed  body."  To-day,  it  presents 
itself  to  us  an  established  Commonwealth,  and  is  knocking  at  our  doors  for 
admittance  to  the  Union  as  a  free  and  independent  State.  Shall  it  be 
•turned  away?  Shall  it  be  remanded  to  its  colonial  condition?  Shall  we  at- 


18 

tempt  to  crowd  back  this  full-grown  man  into  the  cradle  of  infancy?  Anil 
that,  too,  in  spite  of  the  express  provisions  of  the  treaty  by  which  it  was 
acquired,  athat  it  shall  be  admitted  to  the  Union  as  speedily  as  possible?" 

Upon  what  pretence  shall  such  a  step  be  taken?  Is  it  said  that  there 
has  been  some  violation  of  precedents  in  her  preparatory  proceedings? 
Where  will  you  find  a  precedent  in  any  degree  applicable  to  her  condi 
tion?  When  has  such  a  case  been  presented  in  our  past  history?  When 
may  we  look  for  another  such  in  our  future  progress?  "Who  hath  heard 
such  a  thing?  Who  hath  seen  such  things?  Shall  the  earth  be  made  to 
bring  forth  in  one  day?  Or  shall  a  nation  be  born  at  once?" 

Is  it  said  that  she  has  not  population  enough?  The  best  accounts  which 
we  can  obtain  estimate  her  population  at  more  than  a  hundred  thousand 
souls;  and  these,  be  it  remembered,  are  nearly  all  full-grown  persons,  and 
a  vast  majority  of  them  men,  and  voters.  And  what,  after  all,  are  any  es 
timates  of  population  worth,  in  such  a  case?  As  the  same  great  British 
orator,  whom  I  have  just  quoted,  said  of  the  American  colonies  in  1775: 
••Such  is  the  strength  with  which  population  shoots  in  that  part  of  the 
world,  that,  state  the  numbers  as  high  as  we  will,  whilst  the  dispute  con 
tinues,  the  exaggeration  ends.  Whilst  we  are  discussing  any  given  mag 
nitude,  they  are  grown  to  it." 

Is  it  said  that  her  boundaries  are  too  extensive?  You  did  not  find  this 
fault  with  Texas.  Texas,  with  the  boundaries  which  are  claimed  by  her, 
has  three  hundred  and  twenty-five  thousand  five  hundred  and  twenty 
square  miles;  and,  with  any  boundaries  which  are  likely  to  be  asssigned 
to  her,  she  will  have  more  than  two  hundred  thousand  square  miles.  Cali 
fornia,  under  her  own  Constitution,  has  but  one. hundred  arid  fifty-five 
thousand  five  hundred  and  fifty  square  miles  of  territory,  of  which  one- 
half  are  mere  mountains  of  rock  and  ice,  and  another  quarter  a  desert 
waste ! 

Do  you  complain  of  the  length  of  her  sea-coast?  You  did  not  find  this 
fault  with  Florida,  whose  sea-coast  and  gulf  coast  together,  (if  I  am  not 
greatly  mistaken,)  is  more  than  one-third  longer  than  that  of  California. 
'And  where  will  you  divide  the  great  valley  of  the  Sacramento  and  San 
Joaquin,  without  the  greatest  injury  and  injustice  to  those  who  dwell  in  it? 
And  for  what  will  you  divide  it,  except  to  make  two  free  States,  where 
only  one  is  now  proposed  ,  and  thus  to  double  the  cause  of  Southern  jealousy 
and  sectional  opposition? 

I  declare  to  you,  sir,  that,  in  my  judgment,  if  any  fault  is  to  be  found 
with  the  dimensions  of  California,  it  is  to  be  found  by  the  free  States,  who 
might  reasonably  look  to  have  two  States,  instead  of  one,  added  to  their 
number,  from  so  vast  a  territory. 

Is  it  said  that  her  constitution  has  been  cooked!  Who  cooked  it?  That 
her  people  have  been  tampered  with?  Who  tampered  with  them?  As  has 
been  truly  said,  we  have  a  Southern  President  and  a  majority  of  Southern 
men  in  the  Cabinet;  and  they  sent  a  Southern  agent — a  Georgia  member 
of  Congress — a  gentleman,  let  me  say,  for  whose  character  and  conduct  I 
have  the  highest  respect — to  bear  their  despatches  and  communicate  their 
views  to  the  California  settlers. 

Is  it  said  that  these  settlers  are  a  wild,  reckless,  floating  population,  bent 
only  upon  digging  gold,  and  unworthy  to  be  trusted  in  establishing  a  gov 
ernment?  Sir,  I  do  not  believe  a  better  class  of  emigrants  was  ever  found* 


19 

flocking  in  such  numbers  to  any  new  settlement  on  the  face  of  the  earth. 
The  immense  distance,  the  formidable  difficulties,  and  the  onerous  expense 
of  the  pilgrimage  to  California,  necessarily  confined  the  emigration  to  men 
of  some  pecuniary  substance,  as  well  as  to  men  of  more  than  ordinary 
physical  endurance.  We  have  all  seen  going  out  from  our  own  respect 
ive  neighborhoods,  not  a  few  hardy,  honest,  industrious,  patriotic  young 
men, 

"  Bearing  their  birthrights  proudly  on  their  backs, 
To  make  a  hazard  of  new  fortunes  there;" 

and,  in  their  name,  sir,  I  protest  against  the  constitution  which  they  have 
adopted  being  condemned  on  any  score  of  its  paternity. 

Is  it  said,  finally,  Mr.  Chairman,  as  a  ground  for  rejecting  California, 
that  she  has  prohibited  slavery  in  her  constitution?  No,  no,  sir;  nobody 
will  venture  to  urge  that  as  an  objection  to  her  admission  into  the  American 
Union.  Even  those  who  would  willingly  have  had  it  otherwise,  must  be 
glad  in  their  own  hearts,  whether  they  confess  it  or  not,  that  she  has  settled 
that  question  for  herself;  that  she  has  saved  us  from  the  difficulties  and  dan 
gers  which  would  have  attended  an  attempt  to  settle  it  for  her  here.  While 
some  of  us  will  go  still  further,  and.  without  intending  any  offence  to  others, 
will  thank  God  openly,  that  this  infant  Hercules  of  the  West  has  strangled 
the  serpents  in  the  cradle;  that  this  youthful  giant  of  the  Pacific  presents 
himself  to  us  self-dedicated  to  freedom;  and  stands  a  self-pledged  arid  self- 
posted  sentinel — side  by  side  with  Oregon — against  the  introduction  of 
slavery,  by  sea  or  by  land,  into  any  part  of  that  trans-Alpine  territory!  Had 
it  been  otherwise,  sir,  and  had  the  soil  and  climate  proved  in  any  degree 
favorable,  who  can  tell  what  renewal  of  the  horrors  of  the  middle  passage 
might  have  been  witnessed,  in  transporting  slaves  under  the  American  flag 
into  regions  so  remote  and  difficult  of  access! 

"But  what  is  to  become  of  our  equilibrium1?"  says  an  honorable  friend 
from  South  Carolina  or  Alabama.  "  What  security  are  the  Southern  States 
to  have  against  the  growing  prepondeiance  of  Northern  power." 

Mr.  Chairman,  half  the  troubles  which  have  convulsed  the  old  world  for 
two  centuries  past,  have  grown  out  of  an  imagined  necessity  of  preserving 
(he  balance  of  power,  or  maintaining  what  is  now  denominated  a  sectional 
equilibrium.  And  so  it  will  be  here.  The  very  idea  of  this  equilibrium  is 
founded  on  views  of  sectional  jealousy,  sectional  fear,  sectional  hostility  and 
hate.  It  pre-supposes  an  encroaching  and  oppressive  spirit  on  one  side  or 
the  other,  which  waits  only  for  the  power  and  the  opportunity  to  make  itself 
felt;  and,  depend  upon  it,  sir,  it  will  produce  the  very  state  of  things  which 
it  supposes.  But  no  such  state  of  things  exists  now. 

Nothing,  certainly,  can  be  more  unfounded  than  the  idea,  that  the  North 
has  any  hostility  10  the  South;  or  that  Northern  men,  as  a  class,  are  desir 
ous  of  injuring,  or  even  of  irritating, their  Southern  brethren.  They  know 
that  the  interests  of  all  parts  of  the  country  are  bound  up  together  in  the 
same  bundle  of  life  or  death,  for  the  same  good  or  evil  destiny,  and  that  no 
one  member  of  the  Confederacy  can  suffer  without  the  whole  body  suffer 
ing  with  it  "  Uuum  et  commune  periclum;  una  salus"  They  desire — 
from  a  mere  selfish  interest  of  their  own,  if  you  will  have  it  so — the  pros 
perity  and  welfare  of  the  Southern  States,  and  rejoice  at  every  indication  of 
their  increasing  wealth  and  power.  They  believe,  indeed,  that  the  worst 
^nerny  of  these  States,  is  that  which  they  cherish  so  jealously  and  so  pas- 


20 

sionately  within  their  own  bosom.  They  believe  slavery  to  have  originated 
in  a  monstrous  wrong.  They  believe  its  continuance  to  be  a  great  evil. 
They  are,  undoubtedly,  of  opinion,  that  in  this  day  of  civilization  and 
Christianity,  it  would  well  become  those  who  are  responsible  for  its  contin 
uance,  to  be  looking  about  at  least  for  some  prospective  and  gradual  system 
by  which,  at  some  far  distant,  if  not  at  some  earlier  day,  it  may  be  brought 
to  an  end.  They  are  ready,  as  I  believe,  to  bear  their  share  of  the  cost  and 
sacrifice  of  any  such  system.  But  they  know  that  they  themselves  have  no 
power  over  the  subject.  They  acknowledge,  that  so  far  as  slavery  in  the 
Stales  is  concerned,  they  possess  no  constitutional  right  to  interfere  with  it 
in  any  way  whatever.  If  there  be  any  thing  upon  which  the  whole  North  is 
united,  and  in  which  men  of  all  parties,  of  all  professions,  of  all  condi 
tions,  agree,  it  is  in  recognising,  in  clear  and  unmistakable  characters,  as  to 
slavery  within  the  Slates,  a  constitutional  prohibition  of  interference. 

But,  Mr.  Chairman,  this  idea  that  a  free  State  is  never  to  be  admitted  to 
the  Union  without  a  slave  State  to  match  it,  is,  in  my  judgment,  as  imprac 
ticable  as  it  is  unjustifiable.  We  shall  have  to  enter  upon  a  fresh  career  of 
annexation  and  conquest  to  carry  it  out — if  it  is  to  be  carried  out  at  all. 
When  Texas  shall  have  been  exhausted  by  the  admission  of  the  two  or 
three  more  slave  States,  which  it  has  been  so  strongly  contended  that  we 
have  already  siipulated  to  admit,  you  will  have  to  go  farther  and  farther 
South  to  find  fresh  material  to  manufacture  slave  States  out  of,  for  the  sake 
of  equilibrium. 

Walter  Scott,  in  one  of  his  inimitable  essays,  under  the  sobriquet  of 
Malachi  Malagrowther,  tells  us  of  a  castle  of  the  olden  time,  t«he  steward  of 
which  had  such  a  passion  for  regularity,  that  when  a  poacher,  or  a  rogue  of 
any  sort,  was  caught  and  put  in  the  pillory  on  one  side  of  the  gate,  he  gave 
half  a  crown  to  an  honest  laborer  to  stand  in  the  other  pillory  opposite  to 
him!  This,  sir,  was  all  for  uniformity's  sake,  and  to  preserve  the  equilib 
rium.  And  we  shall  have  to  adopt  a  similar  course,  if  this  idea  of  equilib 
rium  is  to  be  adopted;  we  shall  be  called  on  systematically  to  plant  slavery 
upon  free  soil,  if  not  to  put  manacles  upon  free  men,  for  uniformity's  sake. 

Sir,  you  did  not  wait  for  a  free  State  to  come  i$\  hand-in-hand  with  Texas. 
You  regarded  no  principles  of  equilibrium  or  uniformity  on  that  occasion. 
You  brought  her  in  to  disturb  the  equilibrium  then  existing,  and  to  secure 
for  the  South  a  preponderance  in  at  least  one  branch  of  the  Government. 
And  with  this  example  in  our  immediate  view,  the  North,  the  free  States, 
cannot  but  feel  aggrieved,  if  the  admission  of  California  is  to  be  made  in 
any  degree  dependent  upon  considerations  of  this  sort.  We  do  not  say  that 
she  has  an  absolute  right  to  be  admitted  to-day  or  to-morrow.  But  we  do 
say,  that  a  rejection  or  a  postponement  of  her  admission,  on  mere  grounds 
of  sectional  equilibrium,  would  be  an  offence  without  either  provocation  or 
justification. 

And  now,  sir,  entertaining  such  views,  I  need  hardly  add  that,  in  my 
judgment,  California  ought  to  be  admitted  to  the  Union  without  more  delay, 
as  a  separate,  independent  measure.  I  am  opposed  to  any  scheme  for  qual 
ifying  or  coupling  it  with  other  arrangements.  I  am  opposed  to  all  omnibus 
bills,  and  all  amalgamation  projects.  It  is  unjust  to  California  to  embarrass, 
and  perhaps  peril,  her  admission,  by  mixing  her  up  with  matters  of  a  con 
troverted  character.  It  is  still  more  unjust  to  a  large  majority  of  this  House, 


21 

who  desire  to  record  their  names  distinctly  for  her  admission  as  a  State,  to 
deny  them  the  proper,  legitimate,  parliamentary  mode  of  doing  so,  by  an 
nexing  to  the  same  bill  provisions  against  which  not  a  few  of  them  are 
solemnly  pledged.  What  would  Southern  gentlemen  say,  if  we  were  wan 
tonly  to  insist  on  inserting  a  VVilmot  proviso  in  the  California  hill?  Lei 
them  forbear  to  teach  us  bloody  instructions,  which  may  return  to  plague 
the  inventor.  The  ingredients  of  the  poisoned  chalice  may  yet  be  com 
mended  to  their  own  lips.  Let  them  remember,  that  there  may  be  a  point 
of  honor  at  the  North  as  well  as  at  the  South.  Let  them  remember,  that 
the  same  voice  of  patriotism  which  cries  lo  the  North  "give  up,"  says  to 
the  South  also,  "keep  not  back."  Let  them  reflect, how  far  it  is  generous 
towards  those  Northern  members  who  have  consented  thus  far  to  waive  any 
struggle  for  the  proviso,  to  drive  them  to  the  odious  alternative  of  rejecting 
what  they  desire  to  adopt,  or  of  adopting  what  they  may  feel  constrained  to 
reject.  FUw  • 

And  now,  sir,  turning  from  California  ,~\vhat  remains?  New  Mexico  and 
Deseret  or  Utah.  And  what,  are  we  to  do  with  them?  Nothing,  nothing, 
I  reply,  which  shall  endanger  the  harmony  and  domestic  peace  of  these 
United  States. 

Undoubtedly,  Mr.  Chairman,  my  own  honest  impulse  and  earnest  dispo 
sition  would  be  lo  organize  territorial  governments  over  both  of  them,  and 
to  engraft  upon  those  governments  the  principles  of  the  ordinance  of  1787. 
If  I  were  consulting  only  my  own  feelings,  or  what  I  believe  to  be  the* 
wishes  and  views  of  the  people  of  New  England,  this  would  be  my  unhesi 
tating  course.  Though  believing,  as  I  do,  that  the  laws  of  Mexico,  abol 
ishing  slavery,  are  still  in  force  there,  I  would  yet  make  assurance  doubly 
sure,  and  take  a  bond  of  fate  against  the  introduction  of  slavery  into  any 
territory  where  it  does  not  already  exist. 

But,  sir,  I  am  not  for  overturning  the  government  of  my  country,  or  for 
running  any  risk  of  so  disastrous  a  result,  in  order  lo  accomplish  this  object 
in  the  precise  mode  which  would  be  most  satisfactory  to  myself.  No,  sir; 
nor  would  I  press  such  a  course  pertinaciously  upon  Congress,  even  al 
though  the  consequences  should  be  nothing  more  serious  than  to  plant  a 
sting  in  the  bosoms  of  the  people  of  the  South,  or  to  leave  an  impression  in 
their  minds  that  they  had  been  wronged  and  humiliated  by  the  Govern 
ment  of  their  own  country. 

1  hold  to  the  entire  equality  of  all  the  citizens  of  this  Republic,  and  of 
all  the  States  of  this  Union.  And  while  1  wholly  deny  that  the  course 
which  I  have  suggested  would  in  any  degree  infringe  upon  this  equality, 
while  I  can  by  no  means  admit  that  a  prohibition  of  slavery  in  the  territories 
would  encroach  a  hair's  breadth  upon  the  just  rights  of  the  Southern  States 
or  the  Southern  people,  I  would  yet  willingly  and  gladly  forbear  from  any 
unnecessary  act  which  could  even  give  color  to  such  an  idea.  So  far  as  my 
own  sense  of  duty  will  allow  rue  to  go,  or  to  forbear  from  going,  it  shall 
never  be  my  fault,  if  any  human  being  in  this  wide-spread  Republic  shall 
even  imagine  that  he  has  been  injured  or  assailed  either  in  his  person,  his 
property,  or  his  feelings. 

What,  then,  am  I  ready  to  do?  Sir,  I  have  already  expressed  my  inten 
tion  to  stand  by  the  President's  plan  on  this  subject;  and  nothing  has  since 
occurred  to  change  that  intention.  1  have  heard  this  plan  stigmatized  as  a 


22 

weak  and  contemptible  plan ;  but  1  believe  it  to  be  n  wise  and  a  patriotic  plan , 
and  one  which,  whether  it  succeeds  or  fails,  will  have  entitled  the  Presi 
dent  to  the  un mingled  respect  and  gratitude  of  the  American  people. 

My  honorable  friend  from  New  York  [Mr.  DUER]  has  anticipated  me  in 
most  of  the  views  which  I  had  intended  10  take  of  this  plan,  and  1  should 
only  weaken  their  impression  by  presenting  them  over  again.  But  I  can 
not  forbear  dwelling  for  a  moment  upon  a  single  consideration  connected 
with  it. 

The  President  in  his  annual  message,  after  stating  his  belief  that  "the 
people  of  New  Mexico  would,  at  no  very  distant  day,  present  themselves 
for  admission  into  the  Union,"  says  as  follows: 

"  By  awaiting  their  action,  all  causes  of  uneasiness  may  be  avoided,  and  confidence  and  kind 
feeling;  preserved.  With  a  view  of  maintaining  the  harmony  and  tranquillity  so  dear  to  all,  we 
should  abstain  from  the  introduction  of  those  exciting  topics  of  a  sectional  character  which  have 
hitherto  produced  painful  apprehensions  in  the  public  mind;  and  I  repeat  the  solemn  warning  of 
the  first  and  most  illustrious  of  my  predecessors  against  furnishing  'any  ground  for  character 
izing  parties  by  geographical  discriminations."' 

Again,  in  his  message  of  January  21,  communicating  his  views  in  more 
detail  upon  the  subject  before  us,  he  says: 

"No  material  inconvenience  will  result  from  the  want,  for  a  short  period,  of  a  government 
established  by  Congress  over  that  part  of  the  territory  which  lies  eastward  of  the  new  State  of 
California;  and  the  reasons  for  my  opinion,  that  New  Mexico  will  at  no  very  distant  period 
ask  for  admission  into  the  Union,  are  founded  on  unofficial  information,  which  I  suppose  is  com 
mon  to  all  who  have  cared  to  make  inquiries  on  that  subject. 

"Seeing,  then,  that  the  question  which  now  excites  such  painful  sensations  in  the  country, 
will  in  the  end  certainly  be  settled  by  the  silent  effect  of  causes  independent  of  the  action  of  Con 
gress,  I  again  submit  to  your  wisdom  the  policy  recommended  in  my  annual  message,  of  await 
ing  the  salutary  operation  of  those  causes,  believing  that  we  shall  thus  avoid  the  creation  of 
geographical  parties,  and  secure  the  harmony  of  feeling  so  necessary  to  the  beneficial  action  of  our 
political  system." 

This,  sir,  is  the  great  beauty,  the  crowning  grace  of  the  President's  pro 
position.  His  is,  in  my  judgment,  the  only  plan  which  gives  a  triumph  to 
neither  side  of  this  controversy,  and  to  neither  section  of  the  Union,  and 
which,  thus,  leaves  no  just  pretence  for  the  formation  of  geographical  par 
ties. 

The  passage  of  what  has  been  called  the  Wilmot  proviso  would,  we  all 
understand,  under  present  circumstances,  unite  the  South  as  one  man,  and 
if  it  did  not  actually  rend  the  Union  asunder,  would  create  an  alienation 
and  aversion  in  that  quarter  of  the  country,  which  would  render  the  Union 
hardly  worth  preserving. 

On  the  other  hand,  sir,  I  cannot  suppress  my  apprehensions,  that  the  or- 
.ganization  of  territorial  governments  by  Congress  without  any  anti-slavery 
clause,  would  only  transfer  the  agitation  and  indignation  to  the  other  end  of 
the  Republic,  and  would  tend  freshly  to  inflame  a  spirit  which  we  all  de~ 
sire,  and  which  Southern  men,  especially,  cannot  fail  to  desire,  to  see  for 
ever  extinguished. 

Mr.  Chairman,  there  must  be  something  of  reciprocity  in  any  arrange 
ment  by  which  this  question  is  to  be  settled.  But  I  can  see  none — none 
whatever  in  the  plan  of  admitting  California,  organizing  the  two  territo 
ries  without  condition,  and  settling  the  boundaries  of  Texas,  as  proposed  in 
the  same  bill.  What  concession  does  the  South  make  in  such  an  arrange 
ment?  The  admission  of  California?  I  cannot  admit  that  there  is  any  con 
cession  in  that.  If  there  be  any  objections  to  the  admission  of  California, 


23 

they  are  national  and  not  sectional  in  their  character,  arising  out  of  irregu 
larities  in  her  preparatory  proceedings,  and  not  out  of  the  substantial  provi 
sions  of  her  constitution.  And  yet,  in  consideration  of  this  admission,  the 
North  is  called  on  not  merely  to  waive  any  anli-slavery  action  in  regard  to 
two  territories,  hut  to  sanction,  as  I  understand  it,  the  positive  introduction 
of  slavery  where  the  South  itself  has  already  prohibited  it.  By  the  resolu 
tions  of  annexation,  all  of  Texas  above  36°  30'  is  to  be  free  soil;  but,  by 
this  plan,  we  are  to  purchase  all  this,  and  unite  it  to  New  Mexico, and  then 
abrogate  the  prohibition! 

Sir,  the  true  ground  for  conciliation  is  the  middle  ground,  on  which  both 
sides  can  meet  without  the  abandonment  of  any  principle,  or  the  sacrifice- 
of  any  point  of  honor.  Such,  in  my  judgment,  is  the  ground  upon  which 
the  President  has  planted  himself;  and  I  cannot  hesitate  to  express  my  be 
lief,  that  if  party  feelings  had  never  entered  into  this  question;  if  these  per 
nicious  and  poisonous  elements  could  have  been  eliminated  from  the  con 
troversy  in  which  we  are  engaged,  the  great  mass  of  the  American  people, 
from  the  South  and  from  the  North,  from  the  West  and  from  the  East, 
would  have  been  found  rallying  round  the  Executive  upon  this  precise 
ground,  ami  settling  all  their  differences  in  harmony  and  concord. 

Tell  me  not  that  New  Mexico  and  Deseref  may  be  left  a  little  while  lon 
ger  without  a  government  by  such  a  course.  Better  that  they  should  go 
without  a  government  forever,  than  that  our  own  Government  should  be 
broken  up!  Better  that  they  should  be  sundered  from  us  eternally ,  than  that 
they  should  be  instrumental  in  sundering  us  from  each  other!  But  no  such 
alternative  is  involved  in  this  policy.  The  people  who  occupy  those  ter 
ritories  are  capable  of  self-government ,  and  no  sooner  shall  we  have  finally 
announced  to  them  this  policy,  than  they  will  follow  the  example  of  Cali 
fornia,  and  relieve  us  of  all  further  responsibility. 

It  has  been  suggested  in  some  quarters  that  (he  President  has  changed  his 
position,  and  deserted  his  original  platform.  This  is  not  the  first  time,  sir, 
such  a  charge  has  been  brought  against  General  Taylor.  The  Mexicans  pro 
claimed  that  he  had  changed  his  plan,  and  deserted  his  post,  and  fled  from 
the  defence  of  his  friends,  when  lie  made  that  masterly  and  matchless  move 
ment,  from  Fort  Brown  to  Point  Isabel.  But  they  discovered  their  error 
before  many  days  were  over,  and  found  to  their  cost  that  they  had  mistak 
en  their  man.  I  have  not.  the  slightest  authority  to  speak  for  the  Presi 
dent,  nor  would  it  be  parliamentary  for  me  to  do  so,  if  I  had;  but  I  am 
strongly  inclined  to  the  belief,  that  those  who  imagine  that  he  either  has 
changed,  or  means  to  change,  his  views  on  this  subject,  will  be  equally  dis 
appointed. 

For  myself,  sir,  I  can  truly  say  that  I  adopt  this  plan  in  a  spirit  of  con 
ciliation  and  concession,  regarding  it  as  a  compromise  worthy  of  a  Southern 
President  to  offer,  and  worthy  of  both  the  Southern  and  Northern  people  to 
accept. 

I  know  that  there  have  been  many  reproaches  and  criminations  dealt  out 
against  some  of  us  by  the  ultraists  of  the  free  States,  for  being  willing  to 
make  even  this  compromise.  Because  we  are  not  quite  so  rampant  and 
roysterous  in  regard  to  the  anti-slavery  proviso  as  some  of  its  peculiar  friends, 
we  are  charged  with  inconsistency,  desertion,  and  treachery.  Now,  sir,  I 
am  one  of  those  who  think  that  Northern  men  can  afford  to  be  a  little  for- 


24 

bearing  upon  this  subject,  without  incurring  any  just  liability  to  such  impu 
tations.  I  am  of  opinion  that  there  is  ample  reason  to  be  found  in  the 
changed  condition  of  public  affairs,  in  the  altered  circumstances  of  the  case, 
for  the  evident  relaxation  of  the  Northern  sentiment  on  the  subject  of  this 
proviso,  and  for  the  manifest  willingness  of  the  northern  mind  to  acquiesce 
in  what  has  been  called  the  non-action  policy  of  the  President. 

Why,  sir,  at  the  time  that  proviso  was  originally  proposed — at  the  time  it 
was  made  the  subject  of  such  ardent  protestations  of  uncompromising  devo 
tion — what  was  the  state  of  the  country  and  of  the  question?  We  were  then 
at  war  with  Mexico,  and  with  the  strongest  reason  to  apprehend  that  this 
war  was  to  be  pressed  even  to  the  extinction  and  absorption  of  the  whole 
Mexican  Republic.  A  vast,  undefined  extension  of  territory  was  thus  in 
prospect,  upon  which  slavery  was.  or  was  not,  to  be  planted  and  establish 
ed.  That  war,  thank  Heaven,  has  been  brought  to  a  close.  We  are  now 
at  peace;  and  what  is  more,  sir,  the  treaty  of  peace  has  been  so  arranged, 
and  the  boundary  line  so  run,  that,  though  we  may  hesitate  to  admit  that 
Nature  has  everywhere  settled  the  question  against  slavery,  we  must,  yet, 
all  perceive  and  acknowledge  that  the  territory  which  has  been  acquired 
holds  out  but  little  comparative  temptation  or  inducement  to  its  introduction. 

What  else  has  occurred?  Why ,  sir,  at  the  time  we  all  committed  our 
selves  so  hotly  to  the  support  of  the  proviso,  no  government  had  yet  been 
established  in  Oregon,  and  a  purpose  had  been  exhibited  to  insist  upon  the 
right  of  slavery  to  £0  there.  Since  then,  the  principles  of  the  ordinance  of 
1787  have  been  extended,  by  solemn  enactment,  over  that  whole  territory. 

What  further  have  we  witnessed?  Why,  sir,  California — California,  a 
thousand  fold  the  most  important  and  valuable  part  of  the  territories  acquir 
ed  from  Mexico,  has  settled  the  question  for  herself,  and  spontaneously 
dedicated  the  treasures  of  her  virgin  soil,  and  the  riches  of  her  magnificent 
mines,  to  the  labor  of  freemen  forever! 

Sir,  I  do  not  say  that  there  is  to  be  found  in  all  this  the  slightest  justifi 
cation  for  an  abandonment  of  Northern  principle.  But  is  there  not,  is 
there  nor,  ample  reason  for  an  abatement  of  the  Northern  tone,,  for  a  for 
bearance  of  Northern  urgency,  upon  this  subject,  without  the  imputation  of 
tergiversation  and  treachery? 

i  think,  sir,  that  I  do  not  undervalue  the  importance  of  the  great  princi 
ples  of  the  ordinance  of  1787,  and  of  that  proviso  which  I  prefer  hence 
forth  to  associate  with  the  gieat  names  of  Thomas  Jefferson,  and  Nathan 
Dane,  and  Rufus  King,  rather  than  with  that  of  any  public  man  of  the 
present  day,  however  distinguished  or  notorious  he  may  have  become. 
But  I  can  never  put  the  question  of  extending  slave  soil  on  the  same  foot 
ing  with  one  of  directly  increasing  slavery  and  multiplying  slaves.  If  a 
positive  issue  could  ever  again  be  made  up  for  our  decision,  whether  human 
beings,  few  or  many,  of  whatever  race,  complexion,  or  condition,  should 
be  freshly  subjected  to  a  system  of  hereditary  bondage,  and  be  changed 
from  freemen  into  slaves,  1  can  conceive  that  no  bonds  of  union,  no  ties  of 
interest,  no  chords  of  sympathy,  no  considerations  of  past  glory,  present 
welfare  ,or  future  grandeur,  would  be  suffered  to  interfere  for  an  instant 
with  our  resolute  and  unceasing  resistance  to  a  measure  so  iniquitous  and 
abominable.  There  would  be  a  clear,  unquestionable,  moral  element  in 
such  an  issue,  which  would  admit  of  no  compromise;  no  concession,  no 


25 

forbearance  whatever.  We  could  never  sanction  such  a  policy;  we  could 
never  submit  to  it.  A  million  of  swords  would  leap  from  their  scabbards 
to  arrest  it,  and  the  Union  itself  would  be  shivered  like  a  Prince  Rupert's 
drop  in  the  shock! 

But,  sir,  the  question  whether  the  institution  of  slavery,  as  it  already 
exists,  shall  be  permitted  to  extend  itself  over  a  hundred,  or  a  hundred  thou 
sand,  more  square  miles  than  it  now  occupies,  is  a  different  question.  The 
influences  of  such  a  policy  upon  the  ultimate  extinction  of  slavery,  and 
upon  the  condition  of  its  unfortunate  victims  as  long  as  it  lasts,  may  well 
be  a  subject  for  careful  consideration.  There  maybe  two  sides  even  to 
some  of  the  moral  aspects  of  the  question.  At  any  rate,  sir,  it  is  not.  in 
my  judgment,  such  an  issue  that  conscientious  and  religious  men  may  not 
be  free  to  acquiesce  in  whatever  decision  may  be  arrived  at  by  the  consti 
tuted  authorities  of  the  country. 

For  myself,  Mr.  Chairman,  I  can  truly  say,  that  it  is  not  with  a  view  of 
cooping  up  slavery,  as  it  has  been  termed,  within  limits  too  narrow  for  its 
natural  growth;  that  it  is  not  for  the  purpose  of  girding  it  round  with  lines 
of  fire  till  its  sting,  like  that  of  the  scorpion,  shall  be  turned  upon  itself; 
that  it  is  not  for  the  sake  of  subjecting  it  to  a  sort  of  experimentum  crucis; 
that  I,  for  one,  have  ever  advocated  the  principles  of  the  ordinance  of 
1T87.  Nor  have  1  the  slightest  imagination  that  such  would  be  the  result 
of  enforcing  those  principles,  within  any  estimable  period  of  time. 

Why,  sir,  are  you  aware,  do  Southern  gentlemen  remember,  that  what 
are  called  the  slave  States  of  this  Union,  Texas  to  the  Rio  Grande  being 
included,  contain  about  nine  hundred  and  forty  thousand  square  miles  of 
territory,  with  a  white  population,  by  the  census  of  1840,  of  considerably 
less  than  five  millions  of  people?  Allow,  if  you  please,  that  this  popula 
tion  has  increased,  during  the  last  ten  years,  sufficiently  to  bring  up  the 
whole  existing  population,  slaves  included,  to  nine  millions  of  people. 
You  have  then  less  than  ten  persons,  black  and  white,  bond  and  free,  to  a 
square  mile  of  territory!  Is  there  not  room  enough  here  for  every  degree 
of  expansion  which  can  be  predicted,  upon  the  largest  calculation,  fora 
century  to  come? 

Mean  time,  sir,  do  not  forget,  that  the  free  States,  with  a  population,  by 
the  census  of  1840,  of  more  than  nine  millions  and  a  half,  and  which  must 
now  have  run  up  to  not  less  than  thirteen  or  fourteen  millions,  have  only 
about  four  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  square  miles.  In  other  words,  the 
free  States,  at  this  moment,  have  thirty  persons  to  a  square  mile,  while  the 
slave  States  have  only  ten! 

I  exclude  all  the  territories  in  this  calculation.  But  it  is  a  striking  fact, 
that  if  all  the  territories,  without  exception,  not  included  within  the  limits 
of  any  State,  were  added  to  the  free  States,  and  a  proportion  were  then  in 
stituted  between  the  number  of  square  miles  occupied  by  the  free  white 
population  of  the  two  classes  of  States,  it  would  be  found  that  the  slave 
States  would  fall  but  little  short  of  their  full  share.  And  this,  sir,  without 
making  any  allowance  for  the  uninhabitable  deserts  and  frozen  wastes  and 
mountains  of  rock  and  ice,  by  which  these  territories  are  so  greatly  curtailed 
in  their  dimensions,  so  far  as  any  practical  purposes  of  occupation  or  en 
joyment  are  concerned. 


26 

I  repeat,  then,  Mr.  Chairman,  it  is  not  with  the  vain  idea  of  crowding 
slavery  out  of  existence,  that  I  adhere  to  (he  principles  of  the  ordinance  of 
1787. 

Nor  is  it,  sir,  upon  any  consideration  of  local  power,  or  with  any  view 
of  securing  a  sectional  preponderance.  For  one,  I  see  in  the  Constitution 
of  the  United  States  an  ample  security  against  any  real  aggression  which 
either  section  of  the  Union  could  he  tempted  to  commit  against  the  other. 
And  even  if  it  were  not  so.  there  is  a  peculiar  lie  of  common  interest  among 
the  slave  States,  growing  out  of  this  very  institution  of  slavery,  which 
always  has  made  them,  and  always  will  make  them,  a  full  match  for  any 
number  of  free  States  which  may  be  included  within  the  limits  of  this 
Union.  In  our  local  competitions  and  party  differences,  they  will  find 
ample  room  for  the  exercise  of  a  controlling  influence.  I  am  not  sure  that 
it  is  not  their  destiny  always  to  hold  the  balance  of  power  among  Stales 
and  between  parties,  and  thus  to  be  able  to  adopt  the  proud  motto — prczest 
cui  adhcBrco" — which  may  be  liberally  interpreted  ttKe  shall  be  President, 
to  whom  1  adhere!''' 

Sir,  the  territories  which  have  come  under  our  guardianship  are,  in  my 
judgment,  of  more  worth  than  to  be  made  the  mere  make-weights  in  the 
scales  of  sectional  equality.  They  are  entitled  to  another  sort  of  conside 
ration,  than  to  be  cut  up  and  partitioned  off,  like  down-trodden  Poland,  in 
order  to  satisfy  the  longings,  and  appease  the  jealousies,  of  surrounding 
States.  They  are — they  ought  certainly — to  be  (disposed  of  and  regulated 
by  us.  with  a  primary  regard  to  the  prosperity  and  welfare  of  those  who 
occupy  them  now,  and  those  who  are  destined  to  occupy  them  hereafter, 
and  not  with  the  selfish  view  of  augmenting  the  mere  local  power  or  pride 
of  any  of  us. 

Mr.  Chairman,  I  see  in  the  territorial  possessions  of  this  Union,  the  seats 
of  new  States,  the  cradles  of  new  Commonwealths,  the  nurseries,  it  may 
be,  of  new  Republican  empires.  I  see,  in  them,  the  future  abodes  of  our 
brethren,  our  children,  and  our  children's  children,  for  a  thousand  genera 
tions.  I  see,  growing  up  within  their  borders,  institutions  upon  which  the 
character  and  condition  of  avast  multitude  of  the  American  family,  and 
•of  the  human  race,  in  all  time  to  come,  are  to  depend.  I  feel,  that  for  the 
original  shaping  and  moulding  of  these  institutions,  you  and  I,  and  each 
one  of  us  who  occupy  these  seats,  are  in  part  responsible.  And  I  cannot 
omit  to  ask  myself,  what  shall  I  do,  that  I  may  deserve  the  gratitude  and 
the  blessing,  and  not  the  condemnation  and  the  curse,  of  that  posterity, 
whose  welfare  is  thus  in  some  degree  committed  to  my  care? 

As  I  pursue  this  inquiry,  sir,  I  look  back  instinctively  to  the  day,  now 
more  than  two  hundred  years  ago,  when  the  Atlantic  coast  was  the  scene 
of  events  like  those  now  in  progress  upon  the  Pacific;  when  incited,  not, 
indeed,  by  a  love  of  gold,  but  by  a  devotion  to  that  which  is  belter  than 
gold,  and  whose  price  is  above  rubies,  the  forefathers  of  New  England 
were  planting  their  little  colony  upon  that  rock-bound  shore.  I  look  back 
to  the  day  when  slavery  existed  nowhere  upon  the  American  continent, 
and  before  that  first  Dutch  ship,  "built  in  the  eclipse,  and  rigged  with 
curses  dark,"  had  made  its  way  to  Jamestown,  with  a  cargo  of  human 
beings  in  bondage.  I  reflect  how  much  our  fathers  would  have  exulted, 
•could  they  have  arrested  the  progress  of  that  ill-starred  vessel,  and  of  all 


27 

others  of  kindred  employment.  I  remember  how  earnestly  the  patriots  of 
Virginia  and  South  Carolina  again  and  again  pleaded  and  protested  against 
the  policy  of  Great  Britain  in  forcing  slaves  upon  them  against  their  will. 
I  recall  the  original  language  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence  itself,  as 
first  drafted  by  Thomas  Jefferson,  assigning  it  as  one  of  the  moving  causes 
for  throwing  off  our  allegiance  to  the  British  monarch,  that  "he  had  waged 
cruel  war  against  human  nature  ilself,  violating  its  most  sacred  rights  of 
life  and  liberty  in  the  persons  of  a  distant  people  who  never  offended  him, 
captivating  and  carrying  (hem  into  slavery  in  another  hemisphere,  or  to 
incur  miserable  death  in  their  transportation  thither;"  and  that,  "determined 
to  keep  open  a  market  where  men  should  be  bought  and  sold,  he  had 
prostituted  his  negative  for  suppressing  every  legislative  attempt  to  prohibit 
or  to  restrain  this  execrable  commerce." 

I  remember,  too,  that  whatever  material  advantages  may  have  since  been 
derived  from  slave  labor  in  the  cultivation  of  a  crop  which  was  then  un 
known  to  our  country,  the  moral  character  and  social  influences  of  the  in 
stitution  are  still  precisely  what  they  were  described  to  be,  by  those 
who  understood  them  best,  in  the  eailier  daysof  the  Republic.  And  I  see, 
too,  as  no  man  can  help  seeing,  that  almost  all  the  internal  dangers  and 
domestic  dissensions  which  cast  a  doubt,  or  a  shadow  of  doubt,  upon  the 
perpetuity  of  our  glorious  Union,  have  been  and  still  are,  the  direct  or  in 
direct  consequences  of  the  existence  of  this  institution.  And  thus  seeing, 
thus  remembering,  thus  reflecting,  how  can  I  do  otherwise  than  resolve, 
that  it  shall  be  by  no  vote  of  mine  that  slavery  shall  be  established  in  any 
territory  where  it  does  not  already  exist? 

These,  Mr.  Chairman, are  the  considerations  which  influence  and  control 
my  action  on  the  questions  before  us.  I  do  not  ask,  what  the  Northern 
States,  or  what  the  Southern  States,  might  find  most  agreeable  to  their  feel 
ings,  or  most  advantageous  to  their  interests.  I  ask  only,  what  is  right, 
what  is  just,  what  is  best,  for  the  permanent  welfare  of  the  people  of  those 
future  Commonwealths,  whose  foundations  are  now  about  to  be  laid,  and 
whose  destinies  are  now  about  to  be  determined.  And  all  my  observation, 
all  my  experience,  all  the  convictions  of  my  mind  and  of  my  heart,  unite 
in  replying  to  this  question,  that  slavery  is  not  only  an  injustice  and  a 
wrong  to  those  who  are  under  its  immediate  yoke,  but  that  it  is  an  evil  and 
an  injury  to  the  highest  social,  moral,  and  political  interests  of  any  State  in 
which  it  exists. 

Here,  then,  sir,  I  bring  these  remarks  to  a  close.  I  have  explained, 
to  (he  best  of  my  ability,  the  views  which  1  entertain  of  the  great 
questions  of  the  day.  Those  views  may  be  misrepresented  hereafter, 
as  they  have  been  heretofore;  but  they  cannot  be  misunderstood  by  any 
one  who  desires,  or  who  is  even  willing,  to  understand  them.  Most  gladly 
would  I  have  found  myself  agreeing  more  entirely  with  some  of  the  friends 
whom  I  see  around  me,  and  with  more  than  one  of  those  elsewhere,  with 
whom  I  have  always  been  proud  to  be  associated,  and  whose  lead,  on  al 
most  all  occasions,  I  have  rejoiced  to  follow. 

One  tie,  however,  I  am  persuaded,  still  remains  to  us  all — a  common 
devotion  to  the  Union  of  these  States,  and  a  common  determination  to  sac 
rifice  everything  but  principle  to  its  preservation.  Our  responsibilities  are 
indeed  great.  This  vast  Republic,  stretching  from  sea  to  sea,  and  rapidly 


28 

outgrowing  everything  but  our  affections,  looks  anxiously  to  us,  this  day,  to 
take  care  that  it  receives  no  detriment.  Nor  is  it  too  much  to  say,  that  the  eyes 
and  the  hearts  of  the  friends  of  constitutional  freedom  throughout  the  world 
are  at  this  moment  turned  eagerly  here — more  eagerly  than  ever  before — 
to  behold  an  example  of  successful  Republican  Institutions,  and  to  see  them 
come  out  safely  and  triumphantly  from  the  fiery  trial  to  which  they  are 
now  subjected! 

I  have  the  firmest  faith  that  these  eyes  and  these  hearts  will  not  be  dis 
appointed.  I  have  the  strongest  belief  that  the  visions  and  phantoms  of 
disunion  which  now  appal  us,  will  soon  be  remembered  only  like  the  clouds 
of  some  April  morning,  or  "(he  dissolving  views"  of  some  evening  specta 
cle.  I  have  the  fullest  conviction  that  this  glorious  Republic  is  destined  to 
outlast  all,  all,  at  either  end  of  the  Union,  who  may  be  plotting  against  its 
peace,  or  predicting  its  downfall. 

"Fond,  impious  man  !  think'st  thou  yon  sanguine  cloud, 
Raised  by  thy  breath,  can  quench  the  orb  of  day : 
To-morro\v,  it  repairs  its  golden  flood, 
And  warms  the  nations  with  redoubled  ray  !" 

Let  us  proceed  in  the  settlement  of  the  unfortunate  controversies  in  which 
we  find  ourselves  involved  in  a  spirit  of  mutual  conciliation  and  concession: — 
Let  us  invoke  fervently  upon  our  efforts  the  blessing  of  that  Almighty  Being 
who  is  "the  author  of  peace  and  the  lover  of  concord:" — And  we  shall 
still  find  order  springing  out  of  confusion,  harmony  evoked  from  discord, 
and  Peace,  Union,  and  Liberty,  once  more  reassured  to  our  land! 


